The first church I ever heard of was Notre Dame, thanks to the Aurora glow-in-the dark monster model of the Hunchback of Notre Dame at or local department store. I was too young to read at the time (50 years ago), but my father explained to me what it was and that he had been in the actual structure in the early '60s while serving in the army in Paris. As for the Notre Dame itself, I was just reading about it only last week.
FWIW, I find all of this to be depressing.