Tribute to Notre Dame

Today isn't about me but rather a small tribute to Notre Dame. A beautiful church, wonderful example of gothic architecture, but most importantly, a building which has played a significant role in the identity of the people of France.  I have had the privilege to visit it twice, on two different trips. (I may have been there more often than that, but I cannot remember.) The first time on a trip to Paris where my husband and I got engaged, and the second on a trip with my youngest sister who had just turned 18.

I am sharing a few pictures I took on those trips:

 Much of the art, as well as the organ, have been saved, which of course is wonderful from a cultural heritage point of view, but thinking over it today I have been trying to find an approximate equivalent of something in my own home country to compare its demise with. I think that the feeling would be the same in the US if the statue of Liberty were destroyed. In our current city, there isn't anything quite as central to the identity of the people.  Maybe the Uhrturm? But that is such a small thing. So to those who watched and wept, you have my deepest sympathy for your loss.

Notre Dame is also the backdrop for Victor Hugo's very famous novel, The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Today, as a tribute, we showed the movie to the children.

A lot of Urban Sketchers have posted their beautiful drawings of Notre Dame online.  I am hoping to find time to do a nice drawing myself in the next day or two.


  Have you been to Notre Dame? Do you live in Paris? Do you have a special memory associated with it? Leave me a comment.

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