" Notre-Dame’s neighborhood has of course vastly improved since Victor Hugo’s day, although Bishop Sully certainly would not recognize Baron Haussmann’s vastly expanded parvis. Still, if you can catch a glimpse of Notre-Dame’s spire from the ancient Rue des Chantres or Place Maubert, and then follow the narrowest lanes you can find to the great cathedral’s western portals, you will be treading the path that countless medieval students and clerics have taken before you.

And then look up, and up, relishing this direct link with a distant past. Here is Notre-Dame, the noble survivor of the centuries. Here is Notre-Dame—truly a cathedral for the ages. "

― Mary McAuliffe , Paris Discovered: Explorations in the City of Light