In Paris, an Age-Old Spell of Invulnerability Has Been Broken

I lived for many years in Rome. After 9/11, I used to imagine all the things I would do to try to safeguard the monuments which suddenly seemed so vulnerable. I still think we must do much more. In the case of Notre Dame, though, we seem to have gotten lucky, in large part due to the heroism of the firefighters. The best of the cathedral has survived. But now we must use this opportunity to decide how we are going to make the necessary sacrifices not only to protect our architectural, spiritual, and cultural heritage, but now, and for the first time, we must sacrifice to save the planet itself. This, more than anything else, is the challenge the Notre Dame fire sets out for us. If our oceans rise, we will lose a thousand Notre Dames.

I am so sad that another piece of history has been destroyed.In a way even someone like myself can empathasize with French citizens that a piece of who they were is lost.It can be rebuilt but in a sense it will be something different . A cartoon of what had been built through history by the hands of French forefatherssome thingscan never be replaced and once gone are gone forever.How it happened will only serve to focusblame,the real sadness is that it is gone,and soonwillslip from historical memory if such a thing exists

For me, there was never a "spell of invulnerability." Far from it. The very vulnerability of great art and artifacts is what contributes to our sense of their value. Great paintings may be seen as just so much cloth and pigments. At times, the prospects for the continued existence of an entire city is a matter of which general has taken it off a bombing run. Once, oceans protected nations from attack. Then commuter aircraft began slamming into skyscrapers. In the great hierarchy of our concerns, human life must come first. For the rest, we must conjure in our minds the survivors of disasters like fires and floods and war who stand before the ruins and muse that after all, life is more important.

The title, "an Age-Old Spell of Invulnerability Has Been Broken" is a bit counterfactual. The roof was not structural, it was mostly a cover to keep the rain from seeping in. It is now temporarily replaced by a tarp. All the building climbers whose life dream was to climb Notre Dame without being arrested helped bring up and stretch the tarp. Fortunately, the stone cathedral was mostly unhurt, and even its stained glass windows and rose survived all right. Mid 19th century, the leaky wooden roof was covered with lead, and the molten lead raining from the burning roof must have looked like medieval warfare to the firefighters inside...

The Gillets Jaunes, Yellow Vests, are nothing new in Paris. The locals always rioted, and after scuffles they vanished in the small medieval streets. The now romantic Grands Boulevards had, when built mid nineteenth century, during a time of order after the Revolution, primarily a military purpose. The wide avenues let the army come fast, on horseback, during riots, and they were hard to barricade. The medieval streets were largely demolished. The new buildings strengthened social order. Grand standing apartments on the first two floors, middle class above, servants near the roof. Only the very central part of Paris remained medieval, centered around Notre Dame. Much of it is now a gilded, rich and expensive version of the medieval artisan shops, the most interesting part of the city.

I went up a narrow staircase in one of the towers to an inner platform at the edge of the roof, the one that burned, on the side of the towers. It's the only way up, and it took the warden a precious six minutes to go up and confirm the fire. Lots of gargoyles, which, my Parisian friends told me, were not medieval but new. Added mid 19th century, in the literary frenzy of Victor Hugo's Hunchback... Reality imitating literary art. When the cathedral was built, they were just learning how to erect the very thin stone walls with lots of windows. The cathedral in Beauvais fell during construction. At Notre Dame de Paris, they used those huge buttresses to prop the thin walls in place, an amazing feat of medieval engineering. One should not underestimate what Paris owes the cathedral. When it succeeded, at great cost, the city prospered from the flow of pilgrims... So the cathedral was modified before, and it will be modified again. The chateaux have slate tile roofs, but those would be way too heavy for the cathedral. There is now an international competition for replacing the roof, and I wouldn't be surprised if some 21st century composite is chosen. It will not be easy to guess whether it will withstand centuries to come. Adam Nossiter mentions the most interesting part of the cathedral, which you can still see – the sculptures above the entrance under the towers. If you visit, get some good binoculars and a folding stool and look at them for a few hours...

Pravda thought it was a pinnacle of journalism too. The stark reality is that the entire US media is focused on attacking Trump, to the detriment of reporting anything good that his administration might have accomplished, including criminal justice reform, or anything going on ourside the Western world. I'm an independent, a swing voter, and frankly, at this point, I'm disgusted. Freedom of the press, yes, but there has to be a press for that freedom to hold. Increasingly, I am turning to non-U.S. media, including the English version of al-Jazeera, which is a breath of fresh air in comparison, and I'm beginning to think that what passes for a press in the US today is naught but a bunch of vapid, brainless shills and propagandists.

Poignant article, but the roots of disasters are as much timely as timeless: failures to predict, to prepare and to act. Causes are always clearest in hindsight but it's best not to need them. Asking "What if...." in advance helps. What if those water tight compartments over top? What if always-rising housing prices go down? What if that old, dry wood burns? Of course the modern Cassandra is eternally cursed to hear "but there's no money in the budget." Still, when a first uncertain warning comes in, when your fire alarm goes off for no reason, your shaky subprime derivatives are called safely "ring fenced" or your new plane unexpectedly tumbles out of the sky, it is the best time to recheck your mental math. Notre Dame is not as much old as thoroughly modern. Just my opinion.

As all Paris and the world watched in shock and horror the sad spectacle and beauty of Our Lady of Paris burning helplessly, was there not also something reaching out to us, gripping our mere humanity and calling us to a higher purpose? The tragic irony that this occurred at the beginning of Holy Week was not lost. This conflagration was much more than an artistic loss or a historical anomaly. It was writ big on a nations collective conscious and soul. Had we not all forgotten why and for whom this beautiful cathedral had been built? I was smitten with remorse and later felt shame...somehow the power of the moment nudged me to reconsider the prevailing sarcastic scepticism and disbelief which now pervades our western culture...about the Church as a vessel of Christian truth and grace. My sense of regret was powerfully felt and at times poignant in its intensity. The seeming collapse of the Catholic Church in modern times via unmitigated scandal and unfettered abuse so desolating, that was not this, Our Lady of Paris, crying in flames before all of us a call for something more? Should we not bemoan the passing of a liturgy in which we never participated, of high virtues which we never practised, of an obedience we never accorded and an orthodoxy we never accepted and often ridiculed? Regardless of scandal, abuse, disbelief and ridicule, this years Easter message now rings louder and clearer for me...full of hope, mercy and grace...and it can for you too.

'The first person I approached had his hand to his mouth' reminds me of (I just looked up) 8 December 1980 - when, visiting from elsewhere, we were walking along a Melbourne street when suddenly a guy shoved a microphone in my face and said 'John Lennon's just been shot dead in New York - how do you FEEL ?!??' my first reaction was 'well I didn't really like him that much anyway ...' - but I was more stunned by the ambush reporter so just mumbled - my companion might have had more lofty things to say.

Having just returned from Paris, we can attest to the demoralization of so many French citizens by this tragedy. However, it is now clear that every man made structure is vulnerable to fire, regardless of its heavenly sanctity. There were no fire sprinklers in Notre Dame. There are no fire sprinklers in the Louvre or the Pantheon. I did not see any anywhere. While not attractive, they save buildings and even more importantly, lives. Paris will experience future tragedies that could be avoided.

Thanks, Adam. Your take is brilliant and your humanity shines through. You are a credit to the NY Times. We, American expatriates, are fortunate to have you among us here.

Of the power, and the beauty of any Nation's "Heritage"; THAT essence can never be destroyed. This sacred and wonderfully important building WILL be rebuilt, with hard work, and love. I have been lucky enough to have stood in Notre-Dame, and have had my breath quite literally taken away by the power and beauty that is there. That power and beauty does indeed go on Forever. This wound is but a symbol of a larger endurance.

Paris is the most beautiful city in the world.

I encourage the people in charge of the restoration to adopt the approach that the Rijskmuseum is taking to the restoration of its crown jewel, Rembrandt's "The Night Watch": it will be done "live," so to speak, with video streams and on-site interviews with restorers and curators. Make the process very transparent, in other words. The more the world is involved with the return of Notre-Dame to its glory, the greater will be the project. This will be true to the spirit and the existential fact of the cathedral's creation, when, as was mentioned, street life came right up to Notre-Dame's walls.

Notre-Dame is one of the primary, iconic symbols of Western civilization; the NYC trade center towers were not (although they may gain some posthumous significance.) At this particular moment in history the glory of Western civilization is under threat from the regressive Left who see it as a symbol of colonialism and racism, and from the idiotic far Right, who seek to co-opt its message as one of white supremacy and general xenophobia (which it certainly is not.) Most of us in the middle recognize Western civilization as the greatest civilizing influence the world has ever known- in law, the arts, philosophy, etc., etc. So, seeing one of its greatest symbols in flames is something of a metaphor for what is happening right now to our cherished civilization.

I feel similar reactions and was there that night to watch it as well. The crowd watching was very quiet. I also feel a sense of shame, that we the living at this moment in time have not done what every generation before us has done for 900 years. Not with all our high technology, sensors and machines could we do what previous generation had done mostly with hand tools, muscle and simply paying attention: stop the Notre Dame from burning. There is something similar to 9-11 where all our computers, satellites, fighter jets, security, digital things and 15 intelligence communities failed to do: protect the US from a massive attack by 19 men with box cutters.

As a frequent visitor to Paris for a number of years, the one thing I notice is that Paris is always under conservation [frequently] or construction. She is an old city and is always applying new makeup. To keep herself beautiful. Some buildings are covered up for years before their unveiling. Notre Dame will reappear, better than before. I am an old man n ow, but I will live long enough to see her again, re-built.

I wonder whether another event didn't violate more profoundly Paris' sense of invulnerability: the death of 129 souls in 2015's terrorist attacks. Buildings come and go and Notre Dame is but one of many important ones on the site over the ages. But not since, I don't know, the Commune (?) have so many innocents been annihilated in a single event. I almost think the most extraordinary effect of the N-D fire was to allow the French to speak of religion openly again without fear of ridicule.

Sadness grips my heart every time I think of Notre Dame now but I try to keep my memories at the forefront . In fall of 2014 I walked up the Seine to slowly take in the beauty of Notre Dame, tears filled my eyes the closer I got. My heart was full at the site of the wonders this building held. As I walked around the entire site looking up and down at all the towering walls, I was in awe, such beauty and history to be told. I spent most of my last day in Paris in that marvelous building and I will cherish those memories forever.