Like millions of people around the world, I watched with
growing pain, the fire at Notre Dame.
It seemed impossible such an historic building could be
devoured by fire. When the spire fell, I actually had a pang in my
stomach.
I was fortunate to visit Notre Dame twice. The first
time, Walt and I had gone to England and then took the chunnel to Paris for
the day with our friend Sian and her friend. Notre Dame was the first
place we went to, but it was closed for the lunch hour, so we found some
place for lunch and then went to the Eiffel Tower and finally ended up back
at Notre Dame.
I did not take the most out of our visit. Compared to
the cathedrals of England it seemed so dark and I am sorry now that I didn't
spend more time exploring.
I went back several years later when Char and I and our
daughters went to France and Italy. I have to say it was a horrible
day.
Our tour guide, Ian, met us at the plane, after we had flown
for umpty-ump hours, Our schedule said we would have the first day to
settle in and then would see Notre Dame the next day, but he took us to our
hotel and said to meet him in the lobby in 15 minutes.
I think Jeri titled this picture "3 hours after arrival; jet
lag; no lunch." It was beastly hot and Ian stood us at the far end of
the plaza in front of the church and gave us a lecture. A long lecture
about the history of the cathedral.
Then we approached and he gave us another long lecture about
the figures carved around the doors. It went on forEVer and we were
all tired, bored, and just wanted to see the cathedral.
When he finally finished he said "OK...now go inside
and be back out in 15 minutes. Fifteen minutes???? To see
Notre Dame??? That time included standing in the long line to get in.
I honestly remember very little about the interior. I was concerned
about getting out on time. Ian then generously gave us another 15
minutes to see the flying buttresses outside.
About this photo, I wrote in my journal that I would have
sold my firstborn for a bit of water, if she weren't being so nice to me.
We were also going to go back to Paris on our last cruise,
but that was when Mike died and we ended up canceling our cruise. So
my history with Notre Dame is not stellar, but I've always loved the
building and hoped that I would some day be able to give it the attention it
deserved.
They hope to rebuild, but I probably won't see that.
I'm just glad that the entire building was not destroyed and that a lot of
the treasures were able to be saved.
No news on
the computer yet.
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