Notre Dame Cathedral

[JohnS]

Very saddened by yesterday’s dreadful fire and destruction of that fabulous ribbed roof and spire but also humbled by the response first of firefighters in saving so much of the building and its treasures, then the outpouring of grief from Paris, France and so many places, and now the determination to make good the conflagration, rebuild and renew the Cathedral, matched by many generous offers of support.  I trust the injured firefighter is recovering and that President Macron’s 5 year restoration plan is a great success.

[LinMM]

It was truely horrific watching this last night and  I admit shed a tear or two when it was (erroneously) reported that the Rose Windows had melted!  better news than expected this morning though!! 

It was particularly frustrating as from the clips you could see on the TV it hardly looked like there were any fire fighters there initially.... but in fact at least 500 were involved and they have ended up doing a heroic job. 

I hope some lessons are learned from this as it shouldn't be so easy for a great building like this to catch fire so quickly. It looks like building works need to be more greatly monitored for this danger. 

 

[Balletfanp]

I couldn’t bear to watch it last night and it looked as though the damage was far worse than it has actually turned out to be - thank goodness! Very fond memories of mine and my husband to be’s first holiday together in Paris when we first met - one of the highlights was Notre Dame and the climb up the towers. We went back several times and I hope we will do so again.

[LinMM]

The rebuild in five years pledged by Macron seems a bit ambitious! There was a smaller fire at York Cathedral and that took more than five years .....this one is on a bigger scale....but I will certainly be looking forward to revisiting when it is finally restored!

[Ian Macmillan]

The New York Times has produced a quite remarkable interactive piece on the Notre Dame fire, with what looks like a fairly full reconstruction of the events that evening, here.    Very well worth a few minutes of your time.

[Fiz]

Apparently none the millionaires who pledged money to help rebuild  Notre Dame have contributed a single penny so far. So much for putting their money where their mouths are! 

[Balletfanp]

On 17/07/2019 at 12:34, Ian Macmillan said:

The New York Times has produced a quite remarkable interactive piece on the Notre Dame fire, with what looks like a fairly full reconstruction of the events that evening, here.    Very well worth a few minutes of your time.

 

It certainly was worth it. Those firefighters were absolute heroes.

[alison]

On ‎18‎/‎07‎/‎2019 at 18:38, Fiz said:

Apparently none the millionaires who pledged money to help rebuild  Notre Dame have contributed a single penny so far. So much for putting their money where their mouths are! 

 

There was some reference to the offer not having gone down well - I think the French populace wanted the chance to make its own contribution, not have a few billionaires take most of the credit/contribute the lion's share.  Or something like that, anyway.