The great eastern limb of the church is raised above the transepts by three steps. Once we have passed into the =Ambulatory=, or _pourtour_, of the choir, we are in the most interesting part of the building; for here our story is of historical monuments and decorative objects still happily existing, and not an account of things which have long since ceased to be. When we step into the ambulatory, we pass from newer to older work, but we experience no violent transition from one style to another. The style of the choir is, speaking generally, the style of the whole church. The differences, interesting as they are to the minute student of architectural development, are such as would remain unnoticed by those who do not pretend to special knowledge. This unity reminds one of an Italian Romanesque basilica rather than a Gothic cathedral. Viollet-le-Duc has noted that the capitals in the triforium of the choir seem to be earlier in date than those of the main arcade beneath it; that if nothing were left save the capitals of the two parts, one would conclude that those of the triforium were earlier. This is manifestly impossible, but it shows that not the smallest deviation of style was allowed in constructing the upper story. Among the capitals of the columns in the choir there are a few representations of animal life amongst the conventional foliage, while the capitals in the nave represent foliage alone. The choir is throughout a shade nearer Romanesque than the nave, but the difference is so slight that only close examination reveals it. Already we have remarked on the superiority of an apsidal termination to any other form in a Gothic church. The ordered grandeur of Notre Dame is nowhere more impressive than in the beautiful sweep of the apse with its spacious ambulatory. It must have been even more imposing in its simplicity before the construction of the side chapels was undertaken, although we are far from regretting an addition which, though it may have reduced the original dignity of the church, has added variety to it and rendered it more interesting. Let us begin our detailed examination of the choir and its chapels with the famous =Screen= of sculptures by Jehan Ravy and his nephew Jehan le Bouteiller, which we must study from the ambulatory. In his _History of Sculpture_, Professor Wilhelm Lübke devotes considerable space to this series in the chapter devoted to “Northern Sculpture in the Late Gothic Epoch” (1300 to 1450). After stating that France exhausted herself during the golden age of Gothic sculpture, and that the period under discussion was so stormy as to be unfavourable to the production of works of art, he writes of the screen as follows: