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It’s a simple bronze milestone, sealed in a stone of the parvis, about twenty metres from the cathedral. Completely concentrated looking at the western façade of the church, the tourists just trample on it, pass by, don’t notice it without ever seeing it. It is true that nothing announces its presence; only that discreet inscription: ”Point zero des routes de France”. But this milestone is important: it materializes the zero point of France, since several centuries, from where distances are calculated between Paris and other French or foreign cities. The stone was sealed on 10th of October 1924 on the proposal of municipal adviser Georges Lemarchand. Not so long ago, you could read sometimes on provincial road panels: ”Paris-Notre dame, so many kilometres.” Of course, Notre Dame is not the geographical centre of the Hexagon (that’s how the French often name their country), since experts locate it at the milestone of Bruère, next to Saint-Amant-Montrond in the Cher department. The stone at Notre-Dame is more and better than that: the heart of Christian France “oldest daughter of the Church”, her supreme reference.
In his “Tableau de Paris”, Sebastien Mercier, famous chronicler of the 18th century, mentioned the cathedral already as the « central point of all roads of the Kingdom. »
In the Notre-Dame museum (open 10 rue du Cloitre-Notre-Dame on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday from 14.30-18.00), which is a real information treasure curiously neglected by the visitor who seem even to ignore its existence, a print represents a “boussole itinéraire” (itinerary compass) used under the Ancient Regime. Notre Dame is seen on it encircled by concentric circles as “departure point in “lieues”(ancient distance measure) de France of 2000 toises (another measure) between Paris and the different capitals of Europe. “

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