Good evening, Kibitzers! I know the the Notre Dame fire has garnered a lot of column inches, but I have pictures and by golly, I’m going to a) post them and b) invite you to post yours.
I made a short trip to Paris ten years ago, and the cathedral was a sight I was pretty insistent about taking in. I just really wanted to see it — it was after stuff like the Louvre on my list, yes, but we went to some trouble to swing by it nonetheless. We did not go on the roof-level tour, which would have required more time, planning, and height-related bravery than we had.
So, I took some pictures that are infinitely crappier than anything you can see on Twitter right now. Yet, they’re my souvenirs and I like them.
It has been rightly pointed out that the three historically Black churches recently burned by an arsonist in St. Landry Parish in Louisiana do not have the stature as art, architecture, or cultural artifact that Notre Dame has, and will consequently not attract the numerous worldwide donors we’re starting to see pledge rebuilding funds. There is nothing wrong with donating to restore Notre Dame, but I urge readers to consider also donating to the official GoFundMe campaign for the Louisiana churches. (Commenters on Daily Kos supplied background info about this GoFundMe here and here.)
Bill Penzey, of Penzey’s Spices, sent out an email, from which I quote:
If you haven’t been to the Notre Dame Cathedral it may be hard to understand the sadness of today’s fire. Just to be there, to stand, to look, to listen, was to be connected to something larger than our individual selves. Regardless of where we as individuals sense that our values come from, Notre Dame’s a place where, just to be there is to be powerfully reminded that there are universal human values in which we all share.
Here’s the money shot of a view of Notre Dame that doesn’t exist any more. The spire was added as part of a 19-century restoration, replacing the 13th-century spire, which was sufficiently beat-up that it was removed in 1786. When restorer Eugène Viollet-le-Duc recreated it, he added copper statues of the 12 Apostles, three at each corner of the spire — you can see the green figures on the roof in the next two pictures, where the nave meets the transept. Semi-miraculously, these figures had been removed for restoration just a few days ago.
While in place, they had faced outwards towards Paris, except one; the statue of Saint Thomas, the patron saint of architects, which faced the spire, and had the features of Viollet-le-Duc. [Wikipedia article is pretty good, and already updated.]
Because I’m doing this after work on Tuesday, I’m not going after the links supporting every remark I might insert about Notre Dame. They’re mostly stuff I’ve read in the zillion comments and tweets in the past 24 hours. The cathedral has a website, which says nothing of the fire as I write this, but does have general information and pictures. This Irish medievalist tweets that the rose windows have survived. And the Twitter feed of this French news outlet “cannot be translated” by Google, but the photos are pretty self-explanatory.
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Late Tuesday update: I happened on this, and it belongs in the diary: an interactive overhead view of the cathedral, post-fire. As a mouse user, I am clicking on the screen and dragging to rotate/move around the view, and using the scroll wheel to zoom. Those without mice probably know how these instructions translate.
That’s it for me. Do you guys have favorite pictures of Notre Dame, your own or someone else’s? Feel free to share.
Yet a third hurricane season starts June 1, and Puerto Rico is still struggling to recover.
It is Day 573 since Maria made landfall in Puerto Rico.
PLEASE FOLLOW Denise Oliver Velez and the SOS Puerto Rico group for the latest news about developments in Puerto Rico and the USVI (new diary here). Denise generally collects resonant tweets at the top of her comment threads, as well, and in the APR’s thread most mornings, to make it easy to retweet. If you tweet or FB, please share something about Puerto Rico and USVI regularly.
PUERTO RICO and USVI DISASTER RELIEF DONATION LINKS
The Daily Kos community has its own project: Puerto Rico resident Bobby Neary (newpioneer) leads a small team dedicated to helping a specific rural elder who was left by the storms without power, water, a roof, or any belongings but a moldy mattress. If you like to see concrete results, this is the project for you. See newpioneer’s diaries for ways to help. See this one in particular, and this comment with photos. See also his lovely and heartbreaking poem.
(🌅 = most recently recommended by Denise)
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