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An Indescribable and Horrible Beauty
A few days ago Le Figaro published a picture from inside Notre Dame Cathedral at the moment the area above the altar caught fire and began to rain down hot lead from the 856-year-old roof. It is simultaneously horrifying and mesmerizingly beautiful.
If it were not for the knowledge of the destruction to come, this 1/30th of second would look like the very glory of God Himself over the cross. And maybe it was, as a test to the nation of France and the entire Western world.
It will take perhaps 20 years before Notre-Dame de Paris is restored. Pray that we all don’t lose interest before then.
Published in GeneralMorning in Paris, the city awakes
To the bells of Notre Dame
The fisherman fishes, the bakerman bakes
To the bells of Notre Dame
To the big bells as loud as the thunder
To the little bells soft as a psalm
And some say the soul of the city is
The toll of the bells
The bells of Notre Dame…
— Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz
A single frame from a security camera?
I wish I knew. The story is behind a paywall but someone tweeted out the picture which is how I became aware of it.
Reminds me of St. Paul’s in London back in 1666.
This was the last choir music performed before the fire:
One wit said that it would take a hundred years to return to its original glory making Kieth Richards the only man alive today that would see it when it is finished.
EJ,
Paris is not for burning. The French may yet find their true heart. Sometimes you’ve got to lose everything to appreciate it. Like Notre Dame. Like Freedom.
Regards,
Jim
You were there? Well, I suppose Joliet was not really an option back then.
If the Frauenkirche in Dresden could go from this
to this
in only 21 years, I sure hope they can put a roof back onto Notre Dame in less than 20. But probably nobody (at least in the public world) knows the true extent of the damage at the moment.
Since it is (or was) the most-visited attraction in the most-visited city in the world, I think there’s reason to be hopeful. I was recently in Paris, and hadn’t realized how visible Notre Dame is from so many parts of the city – if it doesn’t get repaired, it will be a real sore thumb.
20 years? 20 years?
We can build a tower scaping the sky on two!