Travel Story: The Bells of Notre Dame

Paris is such a magical city. The monuments are icons known world wide; the Eiffel Tower, Sacre Coeur, L’Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame. Regardless of where I am, I can close my eyes and picture these sites. So when I opened the door to our rented apartment in Paris, how enchanted I was to look out the kitchen window and see the Notre Dame. It was something straight out of an opera set of Verdi’s La Bohème. Roof tops galore, rows of chimneys, windows into other people’s worlds, and the Notre Dame. But that’s not all.

Later that afternoon as we relaxed in our new surrounding the real magic began. The bells of Notre Dame began to sing… bing bong bing bong, bang bing bing bong… booong… booong. A symphony of sounds echoed above the busy city. I stopped what I was doing and went to the window, almost expecting to see something accompanying the sound. But no. It was just the bells, and how wonderful they were.

During our entire visit, whenever the bells chimed, I stopped what I was doing and went to the window. It was my signal to “stop and smell the roses.” Life in the suburbs of California does not include church bells. It’s a shame. It seems like such a wonderful way for me to take a break and slow down. The daily stresses in life – work, family, homework with the kids, and over committed schedules – might even possibly disappear, for just a moment, when the bells chime. It’d be my perfect time to think of the big picture, the magical world we live in and let the little stuff go.