I had originally planned to post a fun travel post “How to talk about travel without sounding like a snob.” but I thought that considering what happened at Notre Dame Cathedral on Monday I would rather move up my post and share my feelings about it. After all, isn’t that what this blog is for?
A month ago to date yesterday my mom, brother, AJS and I trekked to Notre Dame from our hotel after 14 hours of travel. We knew that we wanted to get there and thought it would be a perfect first stop in our whirlwind 3 days in Paris.
My brother is the know all of historical Paris everything. It was like traveling with an encyclopedia and I loved it. He has been obsessed with Notre Dame for many years (thank you Hunchback of Notre Dame) and knows so many details that we wouldn’t have known otherwise.
Even though we knew we wouldn’t be going up into the tower we wanted to see inside. Luckily the line wasn’t terrible and we were inside in 10 minutes. We actually were really happy we choose the time we did because there was an evening mass going on and it was really nice to observe.
Ill be the first to admit I am easily impressed by historical sites. I love the beauty of older buildings and the intricacies and details that go into the work to build them. It was quiet inside aside from hushed voices and the Priest conducting mass.
We grew up Catholic so I have visited many catholic churches in a few countries at this point but really none I have visited compare to Notre Dame. It sounds like lip service but it really is a gorgeous structure and that is without taking into account the art and the statues everywhere.
AJS text me a news link showing that Notre Dame was on fire as I was wrapping up a meeting. I immediately put my phone down because I was worried I’d start to cry. Once I got to my office I started trying to find information and my heart just hurt. The video of the spire falling was so heartbreaking. I hate to be that person who acts like Notre Dame burning in any way genuinely effects my life, because I know that in reality, it doesn’t. It is just sad, it makes me so sad that something so beautiful has sustained so much damage.
Yes, they will rebuild. But while it’s great it will be rebuilt in its likeness there are parts of the roof, of the structure that have been there since Notre Dame was built. 800 year old wooden beams in the forest (the roof rafters) are likely gone. They can rebuild but they can’t replace what is lost.
I am incredibly happy to see that there were many artifacts that they thought were completely gone that were able to be salvaged, that the structure itself withstood such a raining fire and that service personnel in France are so amazing and courageous for the work they put in to contain the fire and put it out as quickly as they could.
Thanks for listening to my thoughts. Have you visited Notre Dame, I’d love to hear about it.
If you are able and willing please think about donating to Friends of Notre Dame to help with the long road to rebuilding that is ahead of them.
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