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Notre-Dame de Paris - cathedral on fire!

Childlike Empress said:
I did. I also visited the place around 30 years ago when I was an insufferable teenager. I thought it was overrated. ...
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The building, or the novel? Or both?

I have been to Paris only a couple of times, and didn't go to see ND. Don't know why. The second time, more than 20 years ago, I was there to meet a US-based friend from India, and to go on a grand tour of Europe with her. She was the type who wanted to tick of countries and sights from checklists, so in retrospect, I am surprised she did not demand paying ND a token visit.

As far as gothic cathedrals go, yeah I have heard it is not top-5 material. Still, it commands emotions, inspires symbolism.
 
If I were the one that was responsible for this, even if it was purely by accident, I would consider emigration from France though.
 
It would frighten you all how common fires in listed buildings and the ilk actually are. For one to hit such an important building as this is especially tragic, and I speak as someone from the city that just lost GSA, Macintosh's best building, to a blaze. York, Windsor, the list goes on...
 
It was a bit of a dump to be honest. There are better cathedrals in France and it's not a patch on York or Durham.

Still sad though.
 
One of the problems with historic buildings is a lack of compartmentation, deliberate or otherwise, in conjunction with frequent penetrations for structure, services, and the like.



After the Windsor Castle fire, the UK government initiated a review of historic properties in state care ("the Estate") and I was invovled in that. My sites were easy - Skara Brae, Fort George, Fort Charlotte, and others. Even then, though, we had a programme of works to try to control the spread of flame and to look at how we might fight a fire.


This is very sad, a great loss. Professionally, though, I'd like to know more. The French know a thing or two about monuments, so what steps did they take in advance of works? Was there a fireplan in place? Were there special measures during the works?


That will be a long time coming out. There will need to be an investigation, and that will not be done quickly. In the meantime that doesn't stop the media making uninformed speculation.


The roof is completely down. I assume it will have taken the vaulting with it.
 
Been past the place many a time when I lived in Paris. Me, I ended up falling in love with the rolling hills north of the city, on the road to Brussels, not so much Paris, which is tedious when you work for a living and do a daily slog. I'm a country boy anyway, so there's that. But what a tragedy, Notre Dame. Time for a scene from Casablanca on Youtube and a nod of respect.

Parisians - a class of their own - spoiled the place for me. New Yorkers, on the other hand, make NYC the place it is. Much preferred. But I like all the other people in France I've met, north or south, more than Parisians, who nevertheless on more than the odd occasion can be brilliant.

[Tidbit: In the days of Windows XP, the game of Internet Hearts, which allowed you to see the language spoken by your opponents, was always hilarious for me to play here in Europe. For whatever reason, a large portion of French speakers would always try to shoot the moon, then drop out whenever the grande stratégie flopped. Ou la la. I always muttered to myself "must be from Paris."]
 
Any conspiracy theories yet? I'm sure there are some truthers pointing out the spire toppled over instead of collapsing straight down. And of course, the Illuminati MUST be behind it.
 
I hope you Americans aren’t pronouncing the cathedral “Noter Daame” like the college. That adds insult to injury...
 
Trebuchet said:
Any conspiracy theories yet? I'm sure there are some truthers pointing out the spire toppled over instead of collapsing straight down. And of course, the Illuminati MUST be behind it.
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I already stated that Micron, the controversial president of France, with a lower approval rate than anyone except Porky, should not dare to use this incident as propaganda against the mass protests that are going on every saturday now for about half a year. so profound that he had to send in the army with dozens of casualties.
 
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