Each scene was hand-drawn and takes place primarily in alleys, across rooftops and atop the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.

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Next day, near the Notre Dame Cathedral (I was beginning to blame the Frenchies for all this), there were dozens of Christmas-card sellers vying for space with bridal couples in absurd white satin dresses and morning suits, who had just been married during the auspicious festive season and were posing interminably for photographs.

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Grasse also boasts the early medieval Notre Dame du Puy Cathedral and the International Perfume Museum.

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It is one of the most-visited landmarks in Paris right behind the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame cathedral.

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Visitors to the city can take leisurely strolls along the paths and look out onto the historic islands Ile St Louis and Ile de la cite and iconic Paris monuments including Notre Dame Cathedral and the Hotel de Ville.

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In the capital 400 kilometers (250 miles) away, kings, princes and presidents bid a sorrowful farewell to Mitterrand at a requiem Mass in the Cathedral of Notre Dame.

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The rector of Notre-Dame, Monsignor Patrick Jacquin, said it appeared to be the first suicide in decades at the cathedral.

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The facade is faintly Gothic, with echoes of Paris's Notre Dame cathedral.

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From there, we rode to Notre-Dame cathedral, which we explored before switching to even more exotic transport the Batobus, a boat that not only took us east to the Jardin des Plantes botanic gardens and a zoo (whose tiger Madeline tells, "pooh-pooh") but also beneath the Pont Neuf, the bridge Madeline teeters atop (in the first book) and falls from (in the second).

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