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Post by kerouac2 on Apr 15, 2019 17:46:18 GMT
The is a huge fire at Notre Dame. The whole roof is on fire.
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Post by mossie on Apr 15, 2019 18:00:02 GMT
Horrendous pictures on BBC 6 pm news.
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Post by kerouac2 on Apr 15, 2019 18:09:18 GMT
The roof is gone, the spire has collapsed... and it is far from finished.
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Post by mickthecactus on Apr 15, 2019 18:13:25 GMT
The roof is gone, the spire has collapsed... and it is far from finished. Yes just saw on news.
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 15, 2019 18:16:20 GMT
So horrible. A friend of mine just phoned to tell me. It's hard to look at the news videos without crying.
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 15, 2019 18:59:09 GMT
Tragically evocative statement, Huckle.
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Post by kerouac2 on Apr 15, 2019 19:37:29 GMT
All of the crowds they're showing on television are completely silent.
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Post by kerouac2 on Apr 15, 2019 19:39:13 GMT
I did see on Fox News that it was the fault of the French government, because of its secular nature. "The government refuses to participate in the upkeep of religious buildings."
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Post by nycgirl on Apr 15, 2019 19:41:37 GMT
I'm watching the coverage now. It's so horrible and it keeps getting worse and worse. The beautiful stained glass windows are destroyed and the fire has spread to the towers.
The only consolation so far is no one is reported to be hurt. But this is heartbreaking.
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Post by nycgirl on Apr 15, 2019 19:47:47 GMT
No surprise that the "journalists" of Fox News can't even report on this credibly.
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Post by mich64 on Apr 15, 2019 19:51:50 GMT
We have been watching with deep shock and sadness.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Apr 15, 2019 19:52:08 GMT
How awful. I do hope that nobody was caught in the fire.
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Post by kerouac2 on Apr 15, 2019 20:09:24 GMT
There were about 2000 people inside Notre Dame when the fire started, but everybody was evacuated very efficiently. No injuries, no deaths. You have to look hard for a bit of good news.
Also, an emergency team was able to save the various treasures inside, such as the Crown of Thorns. Not the big paintings, of course, and the stained glass windows are gone...
Reims cathedral was destroyed in WW1 and Rouen cathedral was destroyed in WW2. Both of them look just fine now. Notre Dame will also look fine some day, but not for at least 20 years. A national subscription for the reconstruction has already been started.
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Post by kerouac2 on Apr 15, 2019 20:38:32 GMT
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 15, 2019 21:20:05 GMT
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Post by Kimby on Apr 15, 2019 22:03:41 GMT
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Post by lagatta on Apr 15, 2019 23:00:13 GMT
Kudos to the firefighters and other first responders. Remember that this is the week between Palm Sunday and Easter, so there are a lot of faithful, as well as tourists.
It is a terrible tragedy in cultural terms.
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Post by kerouac2 on Apr 16, 2019 10:40:27 GMT
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Post by kerouac2 on Apr 16, 2019 10:48:35 GMT
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Post by kerouac2 on Apr 16, 2019 10:59:37 GMT
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Post by lagatta on Apr 16, 2019 11:25:59 GMT
France has more important things to do than call out Fox News - remember the No Go zones within Paris? But the lack of support to religious heritage buildings is a flat-out lie.
At least it is a beautiful spring day here - I'm so sad about this, and an old friend is dying - will probably die this week. He is elderly, but was always in remarkable shape and kept swimming several times a week. Pretty much all news coverange here is of this sad story. We of course have one of the many Notre Dames in the world, but it dates back only to the early 19th century. There are older churches here, of course. Most people here think that Basilique Notre-Dame is our cathedral, but the actual cathedral is Marie, Reine du Monde - yep, another BVM.
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Post by lagatta on Apr 16, 2019 13:38:17 GMT
www.nouvelobs.com/societe/20190416.OBS11639/le-feu-qui-a-ravage-notre-dame-es-completement-maitrise-partiellement-eteint.html Good thing I'm semi-retired, as translation software is improving rapidly. Those who don't read French can easily find a version in your preferred language. This is about both the very hard work of the firefighters and support from all quarters. The support from the main organisation of French Muslims reminds me of a funny story a Moroccan friend in Paris told us. He was originally from a small village near Fes, and some "plouc" friends from his village, as he called them with affection, were visiting Paris for the first time. And when they visited Notre-Dame, naturally they took their shoes off, as in mosques.
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Post by kerouac2 on Apr 16, 2019 14:12:21 GMT
What I'm wondering is how the major industrialists in France (Pinault, Bouygues, Arnault, Bettencourt...) can pledge to give 800 million euros in less than 12 hours when there is still hunger and disease all over the world.
I know that Notre Dame is incredibly symbolic and it is super important to fix it as quickly as possibly, but if they were to match those figures for Notre Dame with an equal amount of aid to the needy, they would still have more than 90% of their money left over.
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Post by questa on Apr 16, 2019 14:13:09 GMT
When the spire fell down in its flaming skeletal form it seemed to me to resemble the twisted framework of the tower in the images of 9/11. Did anyone else see any similarity? Thank god for flying buttresses. Without them, all of the back walls would have collapsed. This Cathedral was one of the first buildings to use Flying buttresses. All up it took 200 years to build. The restoration had better be a tad faster.
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Post by mossie on Apr 16, 2019 14:17:11 GMT
Thanks for keeping us up to date with this disaster Kerouac. Hopefully the rebuilding fund will get plenty of donations from the 'great and good'.
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Post by kerouac2 on Apr 16, 2019 14:19:48 GMT
When the spire fell down in its flaming skeletal form it seemed to me to resemble the twisted framework of the tower in the images of 9/11. Did anyone else see any similarity? Thank god for flying buttresses. Without them, all of the back walls would have collapsed. This Cathedral was one of the first buildings to use Flying buttresses. All up it took 200 years to build. The restoration had better be a tad faster. Another great invention were the vaulted ceilings inside. These were invented with the precise purpose of protecting the building in case the roof burned. All of the older churches just had wooden roofs with no protection. Most of the ceiling of Notre Dame survived and therefore most of the interior survived. Those architects were geniuses.
Actually, Notre Dame "only" took 107 years to build (1163-1270) although I'm sure they continued to tweak all sorts of details over the years, as in the Viollet-le-Duc renovation. The French always remember this 107 year number, because there is an expression that is used to say when you are becoming impatient: "I'm not going to wait 107 years for it!"
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 16, 2019 15:18:26 GMT
We knew we could count on you, Kerouac! Yours are the first pictures I've seen of the aftermath, although moments earlier I saw this picture online. It depicts Notre Dame in 1726 and very much resembles your second shot in reply #18. The picture of the blasted and blackened rose window really brings home how devastated the building is. I got wry satisfaction from the municipal boards' choice of messages from the last real president of the US and from Sadiq "Voice of Reason" Khan. Fascinating information about how the flying buttresses and vaulted ceilings protected Notre Dame from even more damage. He was originally from a small village near Fes, and some "plouc" friends from his village, as he called them with affection, were visiting Paris for the first time. And when they visited Notre-Dame, naturally they took their shoes off, as in mosques. My grandmother visited us when we lived in Savannah & we drove around its beautiful downtown squares. Then we mercilessly teased her after she piously crossed herself in front of a stately, obviously ecclesiastical building which was actually a synagogue. .. if they were to match those figures for Notre Dame with an equal amount of aid to the needy, they would still have more than 90% of their money left over. Of course Notre Dame should be rebuilt, but you make an excellent point about how entities with so much excess money could splash some of it around to those who have none. Even Harry & Meghan showed how the regular public's emotional response to people and events in the news can be turned to the greater good.
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Post by kerouac2 on Apr 16, 2019 15:59:17 GMT
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Post by nycgirl on Apr 16, 2019 17:25:00 GMT
Thank you once again for your fly-on-the-wall reporting. The chitchat between reporters, the note on the news van, these are the kind of "you are there" details that I don't get from the news outlets.
It's sad to see the blackened holes where the stained glass once stood, but I am surprised to see that the cathedral looks nearly normal from a distance.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Apr 16, 2019 17:58:29 GMT
Thank you for the reports Kerouac. There has been a lot about the fire on the beeb and on sky news here today. The reports have also been showing footage of the devastating fires in York Minster and Windsor castle...both historic buildings where irreplaceable treasures were destroyed. Both buildings have been sympathetically restored altho there is still work to do.
These fires often seem to occur when renovation work is underway. The Houses of Parliament are currently being overhauled...there's a thought.
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