May of 2017 we were able to visit Paris and see many of the famous sites. One we enjoyed was to visit the venerable Notre Dame cathedral. It has been through a lot in its 850 years and was immortalized in Victor Hugo’s “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” and so many movies inspired by that novel. We got to walk through the cathedral, go up into the towers and view the famous tower bells. We ended our tour on the roof to see the amazing gargoyles and view of Paris.
Like the rest of the world we were dismayed to see the fires in April of 2019 that consumed the roof and the tower. We are happy about the efforts to restore as much as can be restored and help continue the history and splendor of this amazing edifice. But we were also grateful that we had the opportunity to see and explore it before so much was lost.
This is the nature of history. All of these sites need to be maintained and restored and often go through tragic changes caused by nature and man. One thing is certain, you can’t depend on those sites being there or unchanged forever.
