What better place to spend Christmas Day in a city that is not your own, when you are far from your family, than in a church where everyone is celebrating the same thing that you are. Mass was just about standing room only and said in French, of course, so impossible to follow but it was still Christmas.

Notra Dame is very different from the many English cathedrals that I have photographed. It seemed to be a lot darker, I think. The east end is a somewhat shorter and rounded, which I hadn't seen before. English cathedrals have lots more famous and not so famous people buried and monumented in their aisles and chapels. I suppose that the lack of monuments could be the result of the French Revolution.

After mass we joined the throng of tourists that had continued to circulate around the side aisles throughout the service. In the south aisle I met Joan and in the north aisle, the Madonna and Child.

In the forecourt outside it seemed as though every sparrow in the whole of Paris had come to be fed. As I watched, parents gave their children crumbs to entice the the birds. This little girl made such a cute picture with the tiny birds fluttering around her head.