Touring Western Europe -France-Old Man Notre Dame

We arrived in Paris on Tuesday after a 7 hr train journey from Barcelona. Having booked our tickets before we even left the UK, we had secured first class tickets for a minimal increase on the second class price. 
On arrival on the train we discovered that there was very little difference between the two types of seats except perhaps a bit more space. The configuration in the cheaper seats is two seats on either side of an aisle whereas first class is two on one side and one on the other. What would have been useful was Wi-Fi that actually worked!

Stupidly I had planned on posting some photos on both Instagram and Facebook and typing a couple of blog posts. It took me the first ninety minutes to post my photos and my blog would not auto save! The train Wi-Fi was rubbish and my own UK network connection which chooses a local country network to connect into was no better. I learnt an important lesson. Next time chill n relax and don’t rely on the internet!

The train (our first evening train journey) pulled into Gare De Lyon twenty minutes late at 9.40 pm,  due to police boarding the train at the French / Spanish border. Having searched the whole train they left empty handed! 
We had left Barcelona on a warm afternoon at around 22 degrees and on arrival into Paris it was dark, cold and raining! The queue for taxis was horrendous. I’m not exaggerating when I say there must have been 150 people in front of us and probably another 100 people behind us in the queue, that snaked around the pavement and back into the station itself. We had arrived during Ramadan and there was a shortage of taxi drivers.

Our Air BnB host was getting more and more frustrated, given she had a check in window of 6-8 pm and had given us a concession for a late arrival, expecting us at 10 pm and it was 11 before we got there!

With a full list of key sites to explore and three trips out of the city planned over the next nine days, we were tired midlife adventurers waking up on our first day in an overcast, set to rain, Paris!

If you had asked me, beforehand, what I was likely to write about from our Paris adventure I would probably have said a précis of all the places we have covered. However as with a lot of my posts, I am instead focusing on the one that has evoked the biggest emotional reaction so far and that believe it or not is Notre Dame! 
Notre Dame I hear you question. Wasn’t it burnt down? Yes! Has it been reopened ? No! However much to my amazement it brought tears to my eyes. 

On April 15th 2019 it did indeed catch fire whilst the spire was already under refurbishment. Like so many people around the world I watched it on the news. I had no reaction to this except perhaps a little sadness, that such an historical building that I had once visited with my children on a cultural tour of the city probably about 15+ years ago, was going up in flames. 
Over the following days the news regularly featured the money being wired across the world to help with the restoration. If I’m honest I remember thinking – wow imagine what that money would do for refugees all around the world trapped in countries where they don’t know the language, have little or no access to basic facilities and currently no future. People who have left their homes because war has been forced upon them, with often only the clothes they have on their backs. What could all this money do to help them? Why are people sending it instead to rebuild a cathedral which isn’t even in their own country? 

Initially I wasn’t even going to include Notre Dame in our plans whilst in Paris but given we were in the locality on one of our days in the city centre I did. 

To my surprise whilst the cathedral is obviously completely blocked off to the public and still looking far from it’s former self, the Parisian authorities have erected a series of display boards that surround the reconstruction to explain how they are going to rebuild it.

Systematically working around the site reading this information, and despite my coat zipped up to my chin in the drizzling rain, I was enraptured and was totally surprised by the emotion that overcame me. 

Notre Dame, originated in medieval times on the Ile de la Cite, (an island in the Seine River), as a Catholic Cathedral. Dedicated to the Virgin Mary it was considered one of the finest examples of French Gothic architecture and a widely recognised symbol of both the city of Paris and the French nation.
Whilst it was completed in 1260 this magnificent old masterpiece lived and breathed through many historical events.  In the 1790s, during the French Revolution it suffered extensive desecration with much of its religious imagery damaged or destroyed.
In the 19th century, the coronation of Napoleon I was held here and with the publication of Victor Hugo’s book “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” in 1831 it attracted more interest which led to restoration between 1844 and 1864.

It was also here on August 26, 1944 that the French celebrated their Liberation from Nazi occupation. In 1963, the facade of this old beauty was cleaned of centuries of soot and grime. A second cleaning and restoration project was carried out between 1991 and 2000.

Over time, it was stripped of many decorations and artworks. However, the cathedral still contained several Gothic, Baroque, and 19th-century sculptures, 17th- and early 18th-century altarpieces, and some of the most important relics in Christendom – including the Crown of Thorns and a sliver and nail of the true cross.

No doubt, like my children, when Disney released their film “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” in 1996 the story of Quasimodo ignited new interest in this masterpiece and suddenly not just adults but children alike wanted to explore its gargoyles and bell tower. The film, taken from the book, gave this piece of architecture life, suddenly it took on its own character and it soon became the most visited French monument.

Having reminded myself of all this history and, if I’m honest, with pictures of Quasimodo in my head, to then see pictures of it going up in flames (it burned for fifteen hours) it did feel emotional. As if France was losing an old friend.

It sustained serious damage and so how do you rebuild this faithful friend?
Initially it was suggested that the cathedral should be modernised but this idea was rejected by the French National Assembly and instead, on 29 July 2019, a law was passed that required the restoration preserve the cathedral’s “historic, artistic and architectural interest”.
Firstly the building had to be stabilised against potential collapse, this work was completed in November 2020. The reconstruction could then begin in earnest.This is where the information displayed at the site comes into play. It doesn’t focus on the planning committee or the hierarchy involved, instead it focuses on the trades people without whom none of the reconstruction would be possible. I photographed some of the information to use in this blog. They might not be fantastic photos taken in the pouring rain on a Parisian afternoon in April but they say it all and for me they yet again humanise this grand old building and take me back to Hugo’s story.

Such was the heat generated during the fire that the scaffolding, that was in place for the restoration at the time, melted.

Largely gutted and damaged by heat and water, Notre Dame’s immense vaults are extremely fragile. Since the fire the nave, the transept, and the choir have been inaccessible so robots have been brought in and are currently clearing them. I wonder what old Notre Dame would be thinking about this new technology?

It was hoped that the reconstruction could be completed by Spring 2024, in time for the opening of the Paris Olympics, but it is now expected that the building will remain closed until December 2024. President Macron actually visited the site the same day we did!
He has confirmed that Notre Dame will be formally returned to the church on April 15th 2024, five years since the fire and that the first mass would be held in the cathedral nave on that day, even if the reconstruction has not been finished.

I will be watching the news with interest. To see this grandfather of a cathedral back, filled with music and life will no doubt once again bring a tear to my eye!

NB:

This is part twelve in my series of posts about our tour of Western Europe. Why not read the previous posts and then follow us on our journey as we continue to explore this lovely part of the world?