This is the worst day for France since June 14, 1940.
This is an awful loss for humanity, but no one died. For “worst day for France” try the
7th of January, 2015 (12 dead, 11 wounded)
13-14th of November, 2015 (130 dead, 413 wounded)
14th of July, 2016 (86 dead, 458 wounded)
And that’s just this decade… actual human lives are worth more than architecture.
I haven’t the words. I will be donating whatever I can to fund the rebuilding, because Paris isn’t Paris without her lady.
I’m guessing that the roofing wad some large timbers and sheathing under the roof - and the spire had a lot of wood as well. Very old, very dry wood.
This is a tragedy. 850 years old.
Edit: Wiki has this on the spire
“The original spire was constructed in the 13th century, probably between 1220 and 1230. It was battered, weakened and bent by the wind over five centuries, and finally was removed in 1786. During the 19th century restoration, Eugène Viollet-le-Duc decided to recreate it, making a new version of oak covered with lead.”
Architecture-wise, Chartes and Amiens are both a day trip from Paris, and will serve you well for the time being.
Parts, probably few near the fire. If I’m reading the above correctly, most of what burned initially was about 200 years old.
I wouldn’t sacrifice actual human lives to save a piece of architecture, but in terms of cultural importance that building was a bigger deal for Paris than any individual human could hope to be. It’s been a central part of the city’s identity for nearly a thousand years.
Losing something that took centuries to build and that most people assumed would be around for many centuries to come is a terrible blow, lives lost or not.
This is horrible. I was there just over a year ago. What a beautiful building. I hope it can be salvaged.
I absolutely assumed you had made that up as a tiny satire; “Here’s the kind of thing he would say.” But you did not make it up. It sounds like the kind of thing he would say because he did say it. He’s not saying it because he gives a damn or because he likes flying water tankers; he’s saying it because that way he gets a slice of the attention pie.
To preserve the karmic balance of the universe, I will now make something up:
“L’Hotel Du Trump actually was the second-tallest building in Paris, and it was actually, before Notre Dame, was the tallest — and then, when they built Notre Dame, it became known as the second-tallest,” he said. “And now it’s the tallest.”
“See what happens when you don’t have enough forest rakes??”
New York Times just mentioned:
The cause of the fire was not immediately known, said André Finot, a spokesman for the cathedral, and officials added that no one had been killed or wounded in the blaze. But even three hours after the fire began, the authorities were still scrambling to contain it — and warned that they were not certain they would be able to.
“The next hour and a half will be decisive,” a spokesman for the city’s firefighters said at 9:30 p.m. Paris time, standing not far from the burning cathedral, where he said around 400 firefighters had been deployed.
Meanwhile, a person with a functioning brain stem:
As a frenchman who’s lived for years a few blocks away from Notre Dame, this is incredibly tragic. Notre Dame is a historical monument that is dear to the French, and clearly, the world. However:
This is the worst day for France since June 14, 1940.
No, it’s not.
The York Minster caught fire in 1984 - just before I moved to the neighborhood - and it was a similar situation: stone building but wood roof, which caught fire in this case after being struck by lightning. I’m surprised this doesn’t happen more often.
(York was restored remarkably quickly - by 1988 - but the interior damage wasn’t so great. Interestingly, the original stone structure was destroyed by another fire in 741, then rebuilt, then razed by the Danes in 1075, then it collapsed on its own in 1407, then endured centuries of things like arson and Cromwell and neglect. These old cathedrals seem to survive whatever gets thrown at them.)
Oh fuck. The plombiers were quoted some minutes ago on the BBC livestream that they are not sure they can save the building. One of the towers is already on fire, the other one is in immediate danger of catching fire.
I’m going offline now. Can’t watch.
I was amazed to learn that it had never had a major fire. IIRC the Cathedral in York was gutted by fire in the 1980s without losing the building. Here’s hoping it can be saved. This is so very sad.
Thanks for the tips.
I’d really like to do a giant tour of Europe and hit up all the various cathedrals as well as some of the Islamic architecture in Spain. It’s amazing how much your appreciation of things can change once you’ve been educated on the subject.
They’ve lost the roof already. At this point it’s an open question whether they’ll be able to save any significant portion of the structure at all. Mind-boggling loss.
I had to double take myself. Out president is Homer Simpson without the heart…
Man, I loved being able to travel.
Now I have a house, wife and kid, and I only get to travel to places like Fresno, and even then it’s a grueling ordeal and a burden on our finances.
If you do, and you have to choose one, choose Amiens, as it also has the Hortillonnages and the Jules Verne museum.
And I’d say June 15, 1940 was pretty competitively hideous and disastrous, too.
Today is just a monumentally bad thing that shouldn’t have happened.
