At Notre Dame, life in Paris goes on
Cranes, cherry-pickers join the tourists, locals
PARIS – The locals and tourists are back at the tables outside Le Quasimodo Notre Dame, the cafe’s orange awning competing with the conical pink blossoms of the flowering horse chestnut trees shading Rue d’Arcole.
Down the block, people cluster around the frozen showcases of the Amorino ice cream shop.
Steps away, souvenir stores are overflowing with the usual assortments of Paris trinkets, from buckets of Eiffel Towers in varying colors and
sizes to snow globes jammed with the city’s landmarks.
But at the next corner, another cafe, Aux Tours de Notre Dame, is dark and silent. A metal police barrier, tended by well-armed gendarmes, blocks the street from its intersection with Rue de Cloitre-Notre-Dame and the great open plaza in front of Notre Dame Cathedral.
At the barrier, languages from the corners of the Earth mingle amid the universal salutes of iPhone cameras, all aimed at the sand-colored twin towers of Paris’s wounded icon, ravaged by a raging roof fire April 15 that sent clouds of smoke across the French capital and stunning images across television screens around the world.
This corner is the closest people can get to the mute and scarred cathedral, whose celebrated bells are not ringing and whose instantly recognizable bulk looms now in the night shadows instead of being brightly illuminated.
Notre Dame looks once again, as it did just before the flames appeared, like a construction site.
Cranes and cherry-pickers arch over the damaged building as workers assess the stability of the walls and take steps to preserve the cathedral as it is while public officials, engineers, architects and the public debate and map a path for the building’s future.
The government has announced a global competition for designs for a restored Notre Dame, and about $1 billion has been pledged for the work.
Surprisingly, there is no smell of smoke on the Ile de la Cite, the island neighborhood that is home to Notre Dame. It’s the same just across the River Seine, where cafes and shops, including the famed Shakespeare and Company bookstore, look out on the cathedral’s southern side.
While stunned onlookers cried on the night of the heartbreaking fire, there are few tears now – just curiosity and the urge to take pictures. Or, in the alternative, to get on with life in Paris.
The bouquinistes are selling their books, photos, old magazines and prints from their forest-green boxes perched on the walls along the Seine. Their posters and prints show Notre Dame as people knew it before April 15.
“Yes, that is nice,” one bookseller said to a browser looking at a linedrawing of the cathedral. There was no mention of the fire.
French President Emmanuel Macron said after the tragedy that Notre Dame, built between the 12th and 14th centuries, could return to its former majesty in five years, which would coincide with Paris hosting the 2024 Olympics. Others who know the intricacies of maintaining and repairing ancient monuments estimated Notre Dame could face 10 to 15 years of work.
The full stretch of the roof is now covered in weatherproof sheeting to keep the elements from causing further damage. A more permanent shield – officials referred to it as an umbrella – will be constructed later. Workers plan to strengthen the outer walls where the roof is gone.
The 30 large, stained-glass windows around the main part of the cathedral, all of which survived, will be removed. The larger rosette windows are likely to be shielded in place.
And what about the roof? Should it be rebuilt exactly as it was, capped by the Gothic spire and the weathervane with the rooster?
A slight majority of French adults, 54%, favor restoring Notre Dame to its original appearance, according to a YouGov poll at the end of last month for Le HuffPost and CNews. Only 25% say the cathedral should incorporate an “architectural gesture,” while 21%, incredibly, had no opinion.
Architects and designers already are floating imaginative ideas for a newer-looking cathedral, including proposals for a massive, glass-covered conservatory; an open-roof garden; a roof and spire crafted entirely in stained glass; a roof and spire made of Baccarat crystal; and a huge metal spire taller than Notre Dame itself.
Be careful and take it slowly, nearly 1,200 French architects, academics and historical experts advised in a letter April 29 to Macron in the Paris newspaper Le Figaro.
“Let’s not erase the complexity of the thought that must surround this site behind a display of efficiency,” the letter warned. “Let’s take the time to find the right path.”
Paris-born James R. Carroll is the Washington bureau chief of Capital News Service at the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism and a former Washington correspondent for the Louisville Courier-Journal and USA TODAY.