Beauty and the Beasties!

Galerie des Chimères! Definitely my favorite part of Notre Dame, sorry Mary and J.C. but I came for the monsters. There is something surreal about covering a church in gargoyles, and when I say covered I mean covered, 5,000 (DANG!) of these thugs adorn Notre Dame, leering and hissing at the faithful, "You go inside and pay attention like a good little sheep so you don't end up in heck with scary hybrid creatures like myself peeling your skin off over a fire pit... hisssss, and remember your 10% tithe...). Gargoyles like most church decoration was used to get religious points across to the illiterate masses, also to disguise waterspouts. These days their main function, to me, is how fun they are to draw, whoever designed/carved them must have had a blast because all they are all so individual (again, 5,000) different faces, some extra scary, some a little goofy, assorted combos of body parts, it's easy to imagine them coming alive and coming for you if you stray to far from the flock...You've been warned.