Notre Dame Cathedral is burning to the ground!

[gman5250]

Back on point....

The only person responsible for this tragedy knows who they are, or possibly it was an industrial accident. Fact of the matter here is that the timber and architectural sculpture was ancient by any standards and tinder dry. The resulting firestorm destroyed (part of) an architectural icon that is utterly irreplaceable. The structure can be rebuilt, but that ancient forest no longer exists, which makes it impossible to simply replace the original. The re-built structure will be a pale replica.

For me, this is a tragedy that transcends people, ideologies or political biases. If and when the facts regarding this incident are revealed we can deal with our sense of loss in our own personal ways.

Daveroo...I love you bro, but ease up man. Tensions are high as it is, no need to provoke another firestorm.

[Josh Patterson]

And let's keep any form of 'Politics' firmly locked away people.
Huub is right, water bombing on a building that is 850 years old, a combination of masonry and timber construction, in the heart of a densely populated metroplis is just a bad idea.
Despite the 'Notre Dame is burning to the ground' headline it wasn't and didn't, through the expertise and courage of le pompiers it appears that a large part of the relics and associated treasure has been saved.
Even the stained glass windows appear to have been saved.
Out-bloody-standing!


Reminder: NO POLITICS!

Yes. It looks like the only parts of the interior of the cathedral that were burned were where the sections of vaulted ceiling failed (like the section the spire caved in when it fell) allowing embers to fall to the floor. Video from a drone today showed that where most of the roof fell it was retained above the intact sections of the ceiling. All things considered the interior looks remarkably good with even sections of pews intact. Finding old growth forest to replace the roof will be a trick though. I read some of the trees it was built from were 3-400 years old. It will be interesting to see what things really look like once the debris is removed and things start to get cleaned up.

[wombat666]

We are flying to France on the 20th for the Villers-Bretonneux ANZAC service on the 25th, so naturally Paris is on our schedule.
I'll drive to Villers-Bretonneux straight from CDG (weather forecast for the 25th........cold to freezing!) and return to Paris as things at Notre Dame will be clearer several days on.
'Madame Wombat' has a French father and an Italian mother, a 'Parisian' when in France and a 'Roman' in Italy, so naturally Notre Dame is embedded in her heritage.
Nothing to do with religion (we don't 'do' religion FWIW), more to do with the Cathedral having been a focal point of Paris for centuries.

'C'est la vie'.

[MrZippy]

We are flying to France on the 20th for the Villers-Bretonneux ANZAC service on the 25th, so naturally Paris is on our schedule.
I'll drive to Villers-Bretonneux straight from CDG (weather forecast for the 25th........cold to freezing!) and return to Paris as things at Notre Dame will be clearer several days on.
'Madame Wombat' has a French father and an Italian mother, a 'Parisian' when in France and a 'Roman' in Italy, so naturally Notre Dame is embedded in her heritage.
Nothing to do with religion (we don't 'do' religion FWIW), more to do with the Cathedral having been a focal point of Paris for centuries.

'C'est la vie'.

Sounds like fun! If you need a luggage-monkey, I'm available