<
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/12/05/arts/design/notre-dame-reopens-paris.html>
"Benoist de Sinety, former vicar general of Paris, was on his scooter that
April evening in 2019, driving across the Pont Neuf toward the Left Bank when
he spotted flames in his rearview mirror billowing from under the eaves of
Notre-Dame. He cursed, made a U-turn and sped toward the cathedral.
Mary, Queen of Scots was married at Notre-Dame, Joan of Arc beatified, Napoleon
crowned. The cathedral has been so central to France that its forecourt is
ground zero from which all distances in the nation are measured.
Now it was burning.
The whole world seemed to stop and hold its breath that evening. For nearly 900
years, since construction began in 1163, the great Gothic cathedral had been a
constant and gravitational center of Paris, holding time at bay. Before the
fire it attracted some 13 million global tourists a year, more than the Eiffel
Tower or the Louvre or St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.
With plumes of smoke and ash drifting over the Seine river, many Parisians and
countless travelers, having come to treat the building as part of the civic
furniture, suddenly realized how much Notre-Dame meant. It was a shared bond
not just with the city and the past but also with beauty and the highest order
of human achievement.
What did it say about us and our moment, in the long arc of history, if this
was its last day?
The building was still smoldering when France’s president, Emmanuel Macron,
promised to reopen it in five years. The timeline seemed a Hail Mary. The roof
of the cathedral, supported by a medieval forest of oak trusses, had collapsed.
Its 19th-century spire lit up like a matchstick against the darkling sky, its
tip cracking and plunging through the ceiling.
Restorations on that scale could take decades. The country was already rattled
by uprisings over gasoline prices and a frayed social safety net that, like
Notre-Dame, had long been a source of national pride and identity. The
symbolism of the cathedral’s fire was unmistakable. Then came Covid.
Yet here we are."
Via Esther Schindler.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
