Connie’s luggage was the first one on the baggage carousel from our connecting flight from Milan to Paris; mine followed shortly. Whew! Then we had a long hike around Charles de Gaul airport trying to locate the shuttle bus to our hotel. We’re stopping over in Paris mainly to see the recently reopened Notre Dame Cathedral before tackling more of France.
Rather than spend upwards of €250 a night in central Paris, we stayed at the Clarion Hotel near the cute village of Roissy-en-France, where a 10-minute walk and €2.50 in bus fare takes you to Gare Charles de Gaulle from where you can get a train to almost anywhere.
In case you were busy filing your taxes, when a fire ravaged the Cathedral on April 15, 2019, many thought it was the end for Notre Dame. But not French President Macron! He believed that with enough money and dedicated craftsmen, Notre Dame could be rebuilt in only five years!
The total cost for the renovation was $928 million and required 1,000 artisans, including master carpenters, engineers, glassmakers, stonemasons, sculptors, artists, and organ builders. Foresters felled two thousand oaks to reframe the roof “forest” which was then covered by 4000 square meters of lead plates. More than 2000 statues and gargoyles were repaired or replaced, stained-glass window were restored and the accumulation of dirt from the past plus a layer of soot and powdered lead from the fire was removed from 40,000 square meters of masonry. The steeple was totally rebuilt and installed and the Golden Rooster was placed atop—the final touch.
Workers were hampered by protective gear during most of the restoration due to the 150 kg of lead from the roof that was released during the fire. And while some work continues today, the Cathedral was opened to the public last December..
Notre Dame “sells” 15,000 free timed-entry tickets a day—everyone else must wait in line. When we climbed out from the Saint Michel Notre Dame metro we joined a mass of people just to get into the snaking line for the Cathedral. We moved along surprisingly fast and in less than half an hour we were inside.
For some reason—my agnosticism, maybe—we had no desire to go into Notre Dame before. But as Joni Mitchell reminded us, “you don’t know what you’ve lost ‘till it’s gone,” and visiting today seemed especially important. We’ve enjoyed the architecture of Salisbury, the solemnity of Westminster, the stained-glass of York Minster, the sheer size of Saint Peter’s and the spirituality of Christmas Evensong at Kölner Dam more but just the idea that Notre Dame could have been lost made for a memorable experience.
Secure in the knowledge that Notre Dame is in good hands, we took a long walk to the Louis Vuitton Foundation designed by architect Frank Geary. We first saw Geary’s work in Prague back in 2002 although we didn’t associate the Dancing House with him at the time. Since then we have visited his Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in LA. As with Frank Lloyd Wright designs, while each is different, all are distinctly Geary.
