Raising Kvell

Our lady was burning. Nine hundred years after construction began on a building that would become the center of Paris and attract 13 million tourists a year, Notre Dame was on fire. It took hours for fire fighters to make it to the source of the flames. By then it was feared the whole building could be reduced to ashes. “There was a feeling that there was something bigger than life at stake,” said Ariel Weil, the mayor of the city’s Fourth Arrondissement, home to the cathedral, “and that Notre-Dame could be lost.” It was damaged but not lost. And with the building still smoldering, French President Macron said it would be re-opened in five years. With a little lady luck and a lot of human effort and ingenuity, that seemingly far-fetched promise was kept. NYT (Gift Article): A Miracle: Notre-Dame’s Astonishing Rebirth From the Ashes. “The building was still smoldering when France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, promised to reopen it in five years. The timeline seemed a Hail Mary. The roof of the cathedral, supported by a medieval forest of oak trusses, had collapsed. Its 19th-century spire lit up like a matchstick against the darkling sky, its tip cracking and plunging through the ceiling. Restorations on that scale could take decades. The country was already rattled by uprisings over gasoline prices and a frayed social safety net that, like Notre-Dame, had long been a source of national pride and identity. The symbolism of the cathedral’s fire was unmistakable. Then came Covid. Yet here we are.” (We’re a lot of other places right now, too. But it’s Friday. It’s been a long few weeks. So let’s just stay here for a little while.)

+ “It took about 250 companies, 2,000 workers, about $900 million, a tight deadline and a lot of national pride.” NYT (Gift Article): How Notre-Dame Was Reborn.