Take all the mosques in France. Take all the 20th century churches.
Take the Pompidou Centre. Take that rusty over-rated tower of Monsieur Eiffel.
A rusty over-rated tower.
Oh, all right, take the Louvre. The Mona Lisa isn't so great, and nobody would miss that silly bint with no arms.
A silly bint with no arms.
I can see I'm going to have to up the bidding. Take Emmanuel Macron. Take all the politicians, police and gilets jaunes.
All right, I know, take all the first-born under the age of 21 (they're all foreigners anyway). Just give us back Notre Dame.
St Denis puts a brave face on it.
Messages have been flowing in from all round the world. They basically come in two types:
1. The Obama/Clinton/May/celebrity tribute. We stand with France (as we do whenever a bit of virtue-signalling is needed)! Notre Dame looked so cool! What a great loss to the world of culture! (What a pity that it's been used by Catholics, whose views on abortion, marriage, same-sex relations, transvestitism, etc. are directly in opposition to our own.)
2. The more balanced tribute. Look, this has been a centre for religious worship since the Hundred Years War and beyond. It's a blessed and sacred place. Anyway, thank God nobody is badly hurt (so far), and the relics, such as the Crown of Thorns, were saved.
But it's still a disaster, whichever point of view you take.
Designs for a new Notre Dame go on display.
Devastating news for all of us. Still reeling... can't believe it. The Lord moves in mysterious ways. I wonder why he did not take that hideous glass pyramid thing outside the Louvre.Hope you are looking after yourself.You might be required to go to Paris to help Inspector Clouseau investigate this catastrophe.You wont like working with him. His English is woeful, he eats a lot of garlic and is an atheist ( I think :)
ReplyDeleteI was astounded to read that the High Altar and the Organ are still intact. I have a particular love of the Organ and the Cavaliegh Coll organ at Notre Dame is one of my all time favourites. Its deep rasping bass notes are a particular feature of that gorgeous organ and they mark out (for me) the particular sound that one gets from French organs. No British organ that I know comes anywhere close to their sound!
ReplyDeleteI would have put it differently, but I totally agree. The Notre-Dame organ has 115 stops (156 ranks) on five manuals and pedal, and more than 8,000 pipes.The current organ has 115 stops (156 ranks) on five manuals and pedal, and more than 8,000 pipes. So now we have to put up with another monster organ at St Eustache for the Easter stuff. (5 manuels et pédalier / 101 stops), 147 ranks, 8000+ pipes. 147 rangs et 8000 tuyaux - 1854 - Ducroquet/Barker/Merklin/Rinckenbach/Gonzalez/Hermann/Danion/Dunand/finally Van den Heuvel (Mtre Coignet aided the Organiste Titulaire Jean Guillou 1989) Mais, quelle splendeur, innit?
DeleteNow we know much is intact, because the vaults held, praise be to God! The organ appears fine, the sacred art saved, the Crown of Thorns, the interior. It certainly appeared from photos that all was lost, utterly lost, but now it appears much better. It is with some satisfaction we note the only area where the vault let go was right over the Modernist altar installed in the 60's or 70's. It apparently smashed the Modernist altar and left it under rubble. What to say about that.
ReplyDeleteWhat to say of the smashed protestant table? Yippeeeeeee!!!!!!
DeleteYipppeeee again!
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