Remembering Notre Dame
What happened yesterday was too horrible to comprehend. I had to gather my thoughts about my experience with the great cathedral.
My mother far upper left corner watching the nuns walking by to the entrance of Notre Dame 1949
My parents’ trip to Paris in 1949 view from Notre Dame. My father’s photo
As a child, I loved to look at my parents’ photo albums. In 1949, the year after they were married they went to France in a group tour through war-scarred Europe to get there. The Notre Dame was on their list to see. I still have the photos now my parents are dead long ago. I am glad my parents don’t live to see this tragic event. I remember the sight of the frightening fable animal watching over Paris from the ramps of the Cathedral.
My grandparents went to Paris as their first trip after WWII. A description follows here.
As a child, I also knew of the Notre Dame as I had read Victor Hugo’s The Hunchback from Notre Dame. Children of today know of the church from Disney film of the same name.
As a young person, I went to Paris too it was in 1971. Unfortunately, I have no photos of that time. I had to wait 36 years until my children had grown up to make the trip again in 2007 and 2011.
I remember it was quite difficult to get inside and up in the tower because of the long lines of patient tourists. I have only one picture from some of the interior.
A part of the interior Notre Dame 2011
All tourists want to see Notre Dame 2011
In 2011 we succeeded to get as far up as you could. Slide show from the many views and angles. If you wish, the pictures can be stopped.
It took the builders two hundred years to finish the Cathedral in 1345. As a fellow tweeter says:
It was 850 years old but survived the French Revolution, other wars and two World Wars.
I hope we will get the correct cause on this terrible fire.
Categories: Architecture, blogging, Old photos, Paris
From one Heart to Another 
These are beautiful pictures, what lovely memories to share with us. It was a shocking, horrible thing yesterday. I am moved though to see all of the outreach in the aftermath, and the people coming together to help rebuild. Although I know it won’t be the same, and much of the history is forever lost, it is some comfort to see the unity.
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Thank you so much for the the kind comment. I am glad to hear that the tragedy has created some unity. I had to share my pictures to try to forget the horrifying fire pictures
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Yes, they are very hard to look at 😦 It’s so nice of you to share these wonderful pictures with us!
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Thanks for the memories. Your family seems to have a history of visits. One of the bad things about timing is that my parents, who have travel the world and have been everywhere, are in France for the first time right now and today was going to be their first day in Paris. So not only do I feel awful for Paris, for the world in general, but my poor parents just missed one of the most remarkable places on Earth….
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Oh, I understand that is so sad for them to witness the tragedy so close when it should be a beautiful spring experience.
It’s true that my parents’ and grandparents’ trips have been very much in my thoughts when I was visiting Paris
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Beautiful and awesome pictures of a great monument, Maria and so nice to be remembering your parents and grandparents.
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Thank you so much for your kind words. It helped me to write the piece and collect the pictures and I am so glad I managed to beat the queue to climb the many steps for the view. Who knows when that can be possible again?
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Great to hear these pleasant and wonderful words from you dear Brigid. Welcome always.
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It was such an empty feeling watching Notre Dame burn. Thank goodness so many of the relics were saved. Over $1 Billion dollars have been pledged to restore it, which is great, but it just won’t be the same.
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No, you are right. It will never be the same. Today I found a few more old photos from my parents’ memoirs and some diary notes from their first visit. I will put them into a blog post
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