We live right down the street of Notre Dame on the Island and saw this devastating event take place! We walk by it every day! Our hearts may be heavy but our minds are resolut to make good from something sad! I took this photo exactly one week prior to the fire!
We have 10 more months of a total of 23 months here in Paris! One grey July morning in , I was staying in an apartment opposite Notre Dame. I had awoken earlier than usual that morning and stood at the window and stared at the beautiful Cathedral and the deserted square in front.
Without thinking, I dressed quickly and left the apartment, and my sleeping husband, and crossed the bridge. I stood and looked up at the Cathedral and then I saw a man by the side door and walked over to him. Struggling with my pitiful French, I asked him if it would be possible to go inside, although I knew the Cathedral was closed to the public at that hour am. He opened his arms wide, smiled and told me I was very welcome! I stepped inside that hushed, stunning Cathedral, devoid of people, and stood transfixed.
The beauty, the peace, the magnificence of that hallowed building just overwhelmed me. I sat on a chair beside one of the stone columns, unaware of how the time was passing and suddenly realized I was not alone any more; other people were walking quietly into the Cathedral to attend Mass.
I did not move. The Priest, who must have been there all the time unbeknownst to me, began the Mass and I closed my eyes and listened to the muffled voices chanting the responses. Finally, I arose and crept out as silently as I could. Outside, blinking in the unaccustomed daylight, I saw that a line of tourists had formed. My precious moment of solitude was over and I walked slowly and thoughtfully back to the apartment my heart soaring.
I will never forget the morning when I was alone inside that beautiful Cathedral and was overcome by peace, awe, and … sheer happiness. I am a French teacher here in the U. One of those students just messaged me to tell me how grateful she was to have seen Notre Dame back then, because of the fire. I hope they can rebuild it and am grateful that it did not completely burn to the ground.
With no roof and no spire, Notre Dame is now an earthly object, tied down to the ground. And the flying buttresses no longer serve as the knots that keep the celestial ship from floating back to heaven.
The destructions caused by the fire make us see what makes Notre Dame so super-natural. Let a roof and a spire and the effect-creating disciples return quickly please.
I think it is sad that it caught on fire. Many people say that it is just a building. However, it is a place where people worship. It is also history made over years ago. I am glad it did not burn down.
Nothing will dampen the beauty and grandeur of this grand dame. The Notre Dame will be restored to its former glory. The project will need the time, the skill and the patience of experts globally to ensure the work is executed to the standard the Notre Dame deserves.
We spent months planning a trip to Europe, including a week in Paris. This is such a long way from our home in New Zealand. We had booked a skip-the-line tour of Notre Dame, and were devastated when we saw the fire on tv, only about a week before our holiday started.
If we can visit Paris again, Notre Dame will be the first place we visit! I never truly appreciated this place until I turned on the television one day and saw it burning. Always in our hearts. Nicolas enjoys long walks across the French Capital, and taking pictures of it along the way.
Overtime, he has discovered many hidden gems he is now eager to share! To support our blog and writers we put affiliate links and advertising on our page. Read more. Facebook Instagram Search. Discover Walks Blog. Your message. Title of your message. Your picture of Notre Dame. And it was really good for my soul in a way to have this vision that I could think about.
It was the only bell to survive the French Revolution—the rest were melted down to create cannon balls—and it was the first bell to ring out when Paris was liberated from Nazi rule. This is not the first project Fontana has created involving bells. In , he recreated the quarter-hour ringing of the Westminster Chimes in the MetLife Tower in New York in the work Panoramic Echoes , and two years later he presented his first Silent Echoes sound work, based on recordings he made of five ancient bells hanging in the Buddhist temples of Kyoto, at Haunch of Venison Gallery in London.
But I couldn't really get anywhere with the bureaucracy of the Palace of Westminster to get permission. The most interesting silent bells in the world are right here in Paris. As he started researching the possibility of creating a work at Notre Dame, Fontana learned that the cathedral's bell towers were not seriously damaged in the fire.
The outbreak has killed more than 17, people in France. Twelve months ago, Parisians lined the banks of the River Seine, some holding hands, others singing hymns and lighting candles as the fire ravaged a centuries-old symbol of French identity. Pope Francis at the time spoke of the sadness he felt for the French people mourning the devastation of Notre-Dame.
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