Notre Dame
In April 2019 a terrible fire tore through the cathedral of Notre Dame. I can remember watching the footage on TV, and being left shocked, seeing what seemed like the entire of Paris as they stood in stunned silence watching the disaster unfold; it seemed like the end of something great, a beloved beacon of the Parisian skyline destroyed for all time…but the story wasn’t to end that way.
The cathedral was closed immediately, and just two days later president Emmanuel Macron committed to restoring it within five years. Amazingly the cathedral reopened on 7 December 2024.
It was a mammoth task, which was achieved by mobilising approximately 2,000 skilled artisans and experts from across France, and also from neighbouring countries such as Germany.
The skills most required were carpenters and stonemasons, as the fire had destroyed the cathedral’s wooden spire and most of the wooden roof. Although It had also severely damaged the cathedral's upper walls, the vaulted stone ceiling remained in place, largely containing the burning roof as it collapsed, preventing extensive damage to the interior. The emergency services and rescue teams managed to move many of the works of art and religious relics to safety, but some did suffer smoke damage, and some of the exterior art was damaged or destroyed. Miraculously the cathedral's altar, two pipe organs, and three 13th century rose windows suffered little or no damage, this was mainly due to the way that the emergency services managed the situation. Not aiming their hoses directly at the stained glass windows for instance meant that the damage to them was mostly from the smoke alone.
Although we booked a timed slot to visit the cathedral (which you can do for free up to 3 days before your visit) we still needed to queue for about 20 minutes to get in, but the unbooked queue was probably a good hour wait.
The real challenge was the volume of visitors they allowed in at any one time. If you are visiting, be prepared for a lot people, and surprisingly quite a lot of noise.