The ground floor windows that illuminate the many side chapels are represented by simple placeholder families right now. In reality, many of them have a triangular “gable” I think this is a nineteenth century addition. For some reason the windows on the North side of the nave don’t have this feature. Maybe they ran out of money, and the side that is visible from across the river took priority.
What is it about the spire? Primeval symbol ? or just a landmark, visible above the rooftops? Certainly, it manages to balance a tower-heavy mass and to offset the solidity of masonry with a sinuous spikiness. I wonder what the medieval spire was like before its state of dishevelment justified Viollet le Duc’s redesign. So far I haven’t come across a drawing that shows this.
Marcel’s modelling is shaping up pretty well now, lego men stepping up the roof valleys where it straddles the crossing and crockets arrayed up…