Miraculous Notre Dame Reopens, Memories and Reflections

December’s cold and rainy greyness has a new beacon of light overlooking the Paris skyline.  Notre Dame de Paris with new radiant luminosity miraculously has reopened!

Advent is a time of hope, waiting and expectation for Christians around the globe to celebrate the birth of the Christ child.  How fitting that many like myself will have to wait with much expectation for our turn to attend a mass there.

All time slots of reservations have been taken for December, but what is a few more weeks to wait for such a special moment?   This waiting coincides with my own memories of returning to Notre Dame, not as a visitor, but with hopes to live near her sacred grounds.

I moved back to Paris on December the 5th, 1999.   Before, I spent months staring at a map of Ile de La Cité and the 5th arrondissement “seeing” myself nearby.  Creative visualizations that I hoped and prayed would land me there.

I felt prayers answered when I lucked upon an apartment on Rue Jussieu, just a ten minute walk to Notre Dame.  Settling in with my two little dachshunds; it initially felt unreal at times.    I was finally back and exactly where I had dreamed of living.

My favourite time to attend mass was in the evening after vespers.     When the blue-gowned choir took their places, they would roll out the huge metal incenser and park it in front of the altar.  Since I usually lucked out getting a front-row seat, I relished being engulfed in the smoky sweet incense.

I liked to touch the massive old pillars, tracing my fingers along the chipped cracks and crevices.   There was an inexplicable energy left by the many thousands of souls who had come before me, each with their own suffering and supplications.

After mass, I lingered around the statue of Notre Dame till the lights were dimmed and ushers hurried along the faithful to leave, hoping to be the last in line.   Those last few minutes, I treasured the sweet silence of the emptied cathedral as if I was alone before exiting into the cool night air.

The beautiful garden tucked in the back of Notre Dame offered me a haven of peace, full of flowering trees and flowers, especially the old roses that lined the back of the cathedral.

The children’s sandbox, alongside the south side near the front entrance, was fun to watch children lost in play.  I admit, one day I took a small sack of sand to plant a date seed, feeling guilty at my deed.

When I first heard of the fire on April, 15, 2019, I rushed to the right bank quai and watched in silent disbelief and sinking heart, as the furious orange flames and smoke, engulfed the cathedral.

After the fire, I found it comforting to pass by the cathedral, miraculously still standing.  The past five years, that had to be enough, knowing that each day hundreds of the most gifted of craftsmen and artists were busy restoring her to all her glory.

The cranes and workmen are still there, finishing up alongside the sides and back.  The flying buttresses that gracefully fan out, not unlike a mother hen’s spread of back feathers, need further supportive restorations.

The reopening ceremony was filled with royals, heads of state and many world dignitaries, but it was the firemen and the Compagnons who received the standing applause.  They are the true heroes who saved Notre Dame and brought her beauty back for all to see.

 Sapeurs -Pompiers or firemen risked their lives to save the cathedral from crashing down.  I can’t imagine the fear they must have had entering the fiery furnace of red flames leaping about them not only of perishing in the fire, but of being crushed by falling debris.  

Compagnons du Devoir, inheritors of Middle Ages building guilds, are a storied and highly regarded group of carpenters, stonecutters, masons, sculptors, stained-glass restorers and painters who are highly skilled in the art of restoring old edifices.  

Most learn their artistic trades in high school, then go on, if chosen, to be a Compagnon to finely polish and master their skills.  I wrote about visiting such high schools and was amazed not only by the beautiful work of these young craftsmen but their noticeable passion for their art.

Notre Dame was restored using the same materials that were originally used in construction back in 1150.  Replacement stone blocks came from the same limestone quarries just outside Paris that made up the original walls.

Specially trained scaffolders and cordists also risked their lives going up and down the unstable, fragilized stone walls to restore them.    There were 2,000 plus labourers involved in returning Notre Dame to all her splendour.

Ancient oak beams, that made up the roof, affectionately called the forest, burned leaving a gaping hole in the cathedral.   It was decided to replace those damaged beams with 100-plus-year-old oak trees, donated from French forests, using the same stripping and carving methods used by medieval carpenters.

There was a hot debate about using wood again, in light of the fire hazards.  Fortunately, chef architect, Philippe Villeneuve stood his ground stating that since oak timbers had already proven strong enough for over 800 years, then it will be wood again to recover those gothic arches.

Carpenters trimmed down each oak log to match the burned beam to be replaced carving the initials of the original medieval carpenter as was the custom back then.  Poignantly, those long-deceased tradesmen will forever be credited for their masterly work from the 12 century.

Tailleurs de pierre, or stonecutters chiselled each quarry stone by hand to replace damaged ones. They too, carved the old stonecutter’s initials for safekeeping.  Pillars were cleaned and reinforced if needed.

Damaged sculptures were made whole again and cleaned of soot. Stained-glass windows were dissembled, cleansed and each repaired.

Frescos had restoration painters gently clean away the soot to repaint the colours, faded over time, back to their original vibrancy.

No wonder the cathedral has regained its original brightness.  After 860 years, cathedrals darken with inescapable age-old dirt, candle snoot and pollution. 

Lit candles are still welcomed inside Notre Dame for the faithful to light. Over 250,000 new votive candles were commissioned from Lourdes. State-of-the-art smoke and fire detection systems have been installed throughout.

The new luminosity is probably what Notre Dame looked like when it first opened its massive doors in the 13th century.

One of the high points of the opening ceremony was seeing the archbishop of Paris use his staff to ritually knock 3 consecutive times on those doors before pushing them open to the dazzling new interior.

Liturgical gowns were designed by French stylist Jean Charles Castelbajac, whose bright blue, red, green and yellow, colours carried symbolic meanings.

Prayers for the evening centered on ending wars.   I could see the visible appreciation on the face of President Zelensky of Ukraine, who was the only head of state applauded.

This latest restoration was the most miraculous, but it had another one after the French Revolution ransacked, trashed and destroyed many statues.  Victor Hugo’s Hunchback of Notre Dame mobilized Parisians to renovate their jewelled gothic masterpiece.   Architect Eugène Viollet Le Duc started the task in 1845 and is credited with building the famous spire that toppled in the fire.

Fortunately, tradition won out again, when it was decided to replicate Viollet Le Duc’s steeple.  Once the cathedral was crowned again with the magnificent new replica, Notre Dame regained its look.  It was like putting a “cerise sur le gâteau” (cherry on the cake), as the French like to say.

Notre Dame will remain free for all to see.  However magnificent and special this cathedral is, it is a place of worship.  Notre Dame welcomes all religious traditions and visitors, believers or not.

After all, Notre Dame means Our Lady, the Blessed Virgin Mary, who is the mother of Christendom and whose maternal tenderness extends to all peoples of the earth.

For 860 years, the millions of souls who have trodded her black and white tiles with prayerful hearts have made Notre Dame what she is: a place of hope that prayers will be answered amongst her bewildering gothic beauty.

As I also wait for the return of longer light-filled days the winter solstice announces on December 21, I can also patiently wait for my turn to experience once again what Notre Dame means to me.

Notre Dame never left my heart, any more than a beloved friend not seen in years.    She is the soul of Paris.  Special moments in our lives have their own timeline.   I await my return with a grateful heart.