The first time I lived in Paris, back in the late 1970s, Notre Dame – “Our Lady” – was a 10 minute walk and I passed by her almost every day. While she was burning last night, my initial reaction was that I had taken her splendor for granted. When I heard commentators remark that Notre Dame is “ground zero” in Paris – that all roads lead to Paris and all distances from Paris start at that precise location on Il de la Cite – I was struck by how closely my routine experiences in Paris and those of global travelers were based on similar calculations. Notre Dame was our connector, she linked us – les Parisiens and les Etrangeres, the Parisians and non-French visitors.
Among my friends, our roads have led to Paris, too. Even if we did not rendezvous there, we have Paris and our her storytelling in common. The city’s impression is indelible, and our journeys have been uncanningly familiar. In the 1970s, my friend the international journalist lived on the Ile around the corner from Notre Dame and I lived not far away off Boulevard Saint Germain. In 2005, while visiting friends from Seattle on the Left Bank, I’d walk down the hill past Notre Dame to the Marais or Louvre galleries. Even in the chill of winter, Paris is for walking. In 2008, we met up with friends from the San Francisco Bay area who had rented a very modern apartment on the Ile within a few blocks of Our Lady. During our 2010 “girlfriends” trip chronicled elsewhere in this blog, I snapped this poor quality photo on my iPhone during an evening Bateau Mouche cruise along the Seine. I could have never imagined what a cherished treasure this image would become for me nine years later when the spire collapsed in flames.
Let us remember Notre Dame in our minds’ eyes in her magnificence – not in her vulnerability. And in five years, when her restoration is complete, as French President Macron has promised, we will visit her again – connecting on the plaza, reading a book in quietude on a bench while frequently gazing up at the towers, entering with reverence into her hallowed hall, grateful for history, the anchoring of civilization and unity of purpose for preserving our global architectural and spiritual treasures.
