THought we’d skip the pub, where alcohol can be involved, it being only lunch, and ate at an old favorites. They changed everything: mine turned out to be chicken with cabbage, not a great combo, and Jane’s had something wrong with it..
And then..we got home to find a horrid scream coming from Jane’s tarped car that has been sitting on the in-yard drive all winter. Like a burglar alarm. We tried to cut off the alarm system. We tried pulling the battery cables. The neighbors from a street away are concerned and asking. We tried pulling fuses. No joy.
We called the fire department, now convinced it couldn’t be the car. Bounced from station to station, nobody knowing what it could be but promising to come have a listen…the fire department having much more important crises….
Theories ranged from a nearby transformer to the pressurized street lamp nearby…
Then Jane found it. In the basement remodel—a water leak alarm had gotten tossed out. It had rained. And water finally reached it. Nobody had pulled the battery. And yep—can be heard on the next block.
We both decided, yes, we want supper, as in food, but we’re not hungry and I’m not cooking. We went for a drink and dessert at our local Italian pub: Jane had creme brulee and I had tiramisu. And we went home and vegged.
Whew, it’s been a day. I have a grocery order coming tomorrow. That’s another advantage if I rent a house: increased mobility options, and so I may still order groceries online, but I’ll have the option of going to the local store. I’m fairly sure this will mean changing store locations again, but that’s fine. Couldn’t put off the order. I’m out of too many items.
I’ll need to make sure about utility costs and who pays for what, though I know I’ll have to transfer internet service to the new home. That might offset the savings on the storage space, which, yes, I’d rather apply towards the house rent. Hmm; I’m sure there’ll be a pet deposit, but there might not be a monthly pet charge, which there is at the apt. Having a back yard could be good for the soul. My friend knows a lawn maintenance guy, cheaper than I’d paid when I was in my prior home.
The tooth has been most unkind today, and I’m going to call the dentist in the morning. Hopefully, it won’t interfere too much with potential renting and moving. It’s already interfering, so I’m hoping for an improvement. Also hoping the dentist can do it, so I won’t have a delay in getting to an oral surgeon. Oh, how I wish we had future medical tech already. I’m going to ask if there’s an over the counter medicine (antibiotic or antiseptic besides Listerine or Chloroseptic) in case of future occurrences with my remaining teeth. As a preventive and first aid before seeing a dentist, or perhaps avoiding something getting to where a dental visit is needed, would be nice. But this case needs a dentist. It’s still not better and it’s rocking along and, ow, still painful; and I have been on the ibuprofen for a week now, which is not something I’d like to have to continue. I’m expecting a tooth extraction, whatever needs to be done to the gum and jaw, and Rx for a painkiller and an antibiotic, most likely. Sigh. But I’d alerted those friends, so we should be able to take care of it this week, and then look at the two rent house locations before or after, depending on when the appt. is.
Ramen tonight because I don’t want anything to provoke the tooth. Can’t do another dose until bedtime. — I somehow did not cook a batch of rice long enough yesterday, then nearly scorched it, and then, I think the butter (low on margarine) had freezer burn; very weird, that. So the rice tasted odd and was still hard, and tomorrow, I’ll give it some more cooking time with something to offset the taste. It’s a sign of how I’m feeling that I messed that up; though I can’t figure how the butter seems to have a “freezer burn” taste, since it was wrapped as usual. Shrugs. I chopped some cooked chicken to a fine dice, so I think it’ll be OK, once I can do solid food again after the dentist visit. It’ll go in the freezer before the visit.
Yup, boring day here. Got a tiny bit done early this morning while the med was doing fine. But I’m low on sleep and hoping I can truly crash tonight after the next dose. — Not truly awful, but annoying and painful enough to mess with my day and my feelings. I hate tooth pain, it affects everything.
It’d sure be something if I get to move next week. Not sure how quickly we can get it done, between the dentist and the rent agreement and the move-in, if it happens. But this month, I think.
A place of my own again, a bit of a yard for some greenery and peace; the chance to work toward something of my own again instead of perpetual payments that don’t build towards anything. Ah, that sounds good. Hoping this works out.
There isn’t an appropriate science fiction cuss word / phrase for a toothache, although I might be overlooking some of the more colorful and obscure Firefly Chinese expressions, haha.
(Yay, the swelling at the gemlike went down after the ramen and a drink. Think I need another cup of tea, though. It had me fooled mid-week; I’d thought it had made a turning point and was healing, but nope, so, dentist, here I come. Alas, poor checkbook, I knew thee, Horatio….)
three years ago, more or less, I had to have a pocket cleaned out in the upper molars. They prescribed “chlorhexidine gluconate” – it’s an antiseptic mouthwash. It works, and it’s not too horrible-tasting, but it is strictly prescription.
BlueCat, if your tooth is infected and draining, that can mess up your sense of taste. Yeah, you need a dentist. Hope it resolves well for you!
Used too much it can stain teeth yellow.
Well… I woke up earlier, and not only is the gumline still not swollen, it’s gone down almost entirely. So that’s about 10 hours since it did. Hmm. I think I am OK for now. But as a precaution, it’s past time for the next ibuprofen. I am going to take that and nap a while. More than five hours’ sleep would be really great, way overdue. When I wake up and get ready for my day, late start, I’ll have a better idea how I’m doing, and will decide if I postpone a dentist visit. If the swelling stays down past breakfast / lunch, and eating doesn’t aggravate it again, I just might have turned the corner. Won’t try hard foods just yet, but a little more than what I’d had all day yesterday would be a big improvement.
After posting that, I got brave and didn’t take the ibuprofen. I’ve eaten.a little. Still no swelling and no pain. Maybe more substantial food tonight. I feel better and can actually do something.
And…still haven’t located the danged packing labels from the Great Reshuffle. Freaking ordered some. Sigh. But, yay, things are proceeding.
I just watched some videos of the fire at the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. How disheartening to see such a historic building go up in flames! what a loss. It is 850 or so years old. Such a loss to history.
Aïe! Est-ce qu’elle est perdue, ou réparable? — Je chercherai les détails des nouvelles.
(I see I have forgotten the noun form for loss, le/la perd, perde, pert, perte. My brain insists there’s a spoken “t” sound at the end, but also wants it to agree with the verb forms. For that consonant not to be silent, there should be a final e, especially if it’s feminine instead of masculine, but hmm, it doesn’t look quite right. I think I’m getting cognitive dissonance from Le Mort d’Arthur. My brain is claiming it’s “la perd or la perde. I can’t believe I can’t recall for certain. Ooh, that’s aggravating. — All right, I really have got to review in earnest. That word is too easy, when you have the verb form around.)
The loss to history and our future, of all that cannot be salvaged…. How awful. Art and craftsmanship and likely manuscripts from the building of the cathedral onward…an important chunk of the development of the medieval kingdoms / duchies into modern France…oh, man. Just less than three months until July 14th, too.
—– Edited To Add:
«La perte» — the loss, (n., fem.)
Right after Palm Sunday and before Easter and near Passover.
Oh Lord. Not much information yet, but much is lost. I’ll still be looking. How terrible. Parisians, all of France, are going to be in shock.
…and francophiles such as myself.
One can but hope that the wooden carvings and the contents of the museum had been stored elsewhere. I seem to recall that those were under the spire.
Quelle horreur! Apparently, the renovation work (which was where the fire started) involved most of the moveable artwork being put in storage; I remember the news reports saying specifically the bronzes had been taken away for the duration, and a priest at ND saying that the artwork was offsite. Watching the spire succumb was dreadful.
eta: my French is almost as bad as the ND disaster.
Paul, hearkening back to a previous discussion about the Chicxulub impact and the Deccan Traps, have you seen this article? https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/02/new-dates-show-massive-volcanic-eruptions-overlapped-with-dinosaurs-death/
There was never a doubt in my mind they’d rebuild. I’ve seen that they’ve laser-scanned St Paul’s, no doubt someone has scanned Notre Dame, they must have documented it before beginning rennovations, so it can be rebuilt as it was. I guess my main question would be how the heat and cold water might have caused spalling of the stone.
Re: Dinodemise – There’s little doubt there was overlap, but what I questioned was whether the impact was strong enough for a cause and effect relationship that far apart. The impact wasn’t great enough to cause a volcanic eruption even at the spot in Yucatan, after all.
But primarily I was trying to differentiate between speculation and the full Scientific Method.
Looks like an American historian did do the laser scanning, so they have tht to work from:
https://www.citylab.com/design/2019/04/rebuilding-notre-dame-cathedral-fire-paris-laser-images/587257/
The damage to Notre Dame may not be as bad as it looked at first.
The wooden roof, which burned so quickly, covers a stone vault over the interior. Photos show that a few sections of the stone vault fell, probably when the spire collapsed, but most of it is still intact. This protected a lot of the interior. In fact stone vaults were introduced as a fire-safety measure in medieval construction.
See
How Catastrophic Is the Notre-Dame Cathedral Fire?
So it’s still a huge loss, which will take decades to rebuild, but it’s not as bad as it could have been.
Here’s a professional video of the last Vespers service in the cathedral before the fire:
Vêpres du 15 avril 2019 à Notre-Dame de Paris
It was recorded yesterday evening, shortly before the fire broke out.
If the wooden altar enclosure burned, then so did my favorite depiction of the Virgin Mary. She was on her way to Bethlehem and visibly pregnant. Most artists seem to believe that she brought the baby with her in her traveling bag.
The area immediately round the altar seems to have survived, though it may be smoke-damaged, as you can see here.
They are saying only 5-10% of the artwork in the building has been lost.
For the next 48 hours, firefighters and engineers will be assessing the stability and safety of the structure.
So my concern about spalling was justified, I think. Good to hear the rose windows were un- or little damaged.
I’m hopeful the restoration can retain the beauty of what was burned while incorporating modern safety features. I’m also relieved that much of the artwork survived.
It just occurred to me that it’s a small favor it happened now–they’ve got 6 months or so before heavy winter storms and snow loads come back. It’ll be hard, but they’ll have some time to get a temporary roof over it.
Last night, I wasn’t getting much more than reporters talking without much information. That and a few clips at night from a distance, and Pres. Macron’s statement that they intended to rebuild.
As controversial as it may be, when I was thinking the damage might be terribly extensive, and with discussion of how long it took firefighters to get there and mount a defense, I found myself wondering if rebuilding a centuries-old monumental building, where extensive portions would be redone, would be a valid treatment, or whether simply salvaging what was ancient, and building something else near the site, modern, would be more appropriate.
But if the damage isn’t so major, around 5% – 10%, and much of the artwork was safe, then that means restoration would be more feasible and appropriate.
Few American sites are as iconic, and most are less than 250 years old; we’re approaching the 250 year anniversary of the USA, or a quarter of a thousand years. It sounds so much more, when you put it that way.
I was reminded last night of how my college French prof, a native Frenchwoman, and my high school French and Spanish teacher, and my junior high foreign language teacher, would be affected by the news. Those three ladies had a tremendous good influence on my love of language and on my education. Overall, I was really lucky to have mostly good, dedicated, and friendly teachers.
It is hard to believe that such an old, important structure and piece of history could be damaged so badly in so little time.
Restoration of smoke damage to artworks is going to be hard to bear for the people doing the restorations, trying to salvage, conserve, and repair what was done centuries ago. All that embodiment of history, of the advance of culture and technology, artwork technique and ideas, over 800 years of the heart of Western Europe. Well, one of the hearts.
I just found myself wondering if construction had started before the Magna Carta in England that essentially also separated England’s Norman ties with France, besides being an important document in monarchy versus democracy. Now I need to look up both.
Personal Update: slight news. One of the rent houses will be ready to look at by the end of this week, and the other, the previous owners have until the end of the month to move out and clean up, so it will be then before I can see it and decide, and potentially begin the move-in. The folks who’d helped me with move-out and move-in before will be helping again, which is at least a known quantity. And this move should be much smoother. (Especially once the packing labels arrive and I can properly label boxes from my apartment! Hah.)
I won’t have to buy a refrigerator, which means I am likely going to get a small deep freezer, as others suggested to CJ and Jane in the prior blog post. This is a good idea, even for one, if one has a house, enough space. I should be able to keep (and refinish) my old dining room suit! Yay! (It was my parents’, and aside from the finish on the tabletop, is in good shape. This means I can get a living room suit (all I really need / want is a couch and a chair, or, oh, I would like a recliner again. But we’ll see what happens there.
This gives me some time to get things done in a more orderly, not too rushed fashion. Ahem, I want also to go over to my storage space and bug-bomb the heck out of it as a preemptive measure. Better that than a bug invasion in the new place!
One of these is a three bedroom, one bath, house. Apparently typical. More than I need for just me. — If I ever get a roommate or a special someone, that will be a major thing; more so if it lasts long-term. I am nervous about that, and yet I don’t like living solo. I have loner / hermit tendencies, but even I don’t like being too alone. — I’ve been solo for so long, I am nervous about the possibility of becoming too attached too quickly to anyone, or to becoming confused in the nature or strength of the relationship, if I did have a roommate, for instance. Yet there’s only one way to take that plunge to have a roommate. But that is a future step. So far, no idea that that will happen. I’d prefer to know someone before they and I agreed to move in with me. But, well, things do have a way of not going the way we think….
This has me a little excited and hopeful, and I’ve needed that boost more than I knew. It’s helping some.
Is your apartment complex close to a college or university? The slapdash way they handle things makes me think the staff is accustomed to dealing with students, who are not inclined to pursue complaints about things like bugs, noise or bad utilities. Mostly students want a place to live that isn’t too expensive, and don’t care or realize that they are entitled to some amount of maintenance when they rent a unit. This might apply to lower income renters too, who don’t want to rock the boat as long as they have someplace to stay.
Ah, no, not really near a major university or college, though there are branches of community colleges around. U of H and HBU and Rice U. are elsewhere in the city. Heck, “the city” comprises most of the county, and has nearly overtaken Tomball and is some ways towards Conroe, these days. In my lifetime, we’ve gone from the 10th largest to the 4th largest US city.
And speaking of historical context and rebuilding: the house where I grew up no longer exists. That old song about tearing down the frees and put up a parking lot? Heh, the open land and small woods near where my house was, at what used to be just inside the city limits, was all paved over and a modern business park put in its place, when I was a senior in high school. There is no trace even of the old road, only the two major highways there, and oddly, the last time I was in the area, haha, the old corner convenience store had been through yet another buyout of the many chains that have owned it over the years. (IIRC, it was a Stop ‘n Go first, then a 7-Eleven, then a Circle K before we moved. I might be reversing the first two.)
No, I think what’s going on with the apt. complex is, the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing. They keep going through updates on their ultra-modern computer interface, both what the residents get to deal with for the complex, and what the mgmt. office uses for scheduling maintenance, and billing, and so on. Their maintenance staff are understaffed, I think, and do the minimum to get it fixed, and I am not sure they get the notifications in a timely or lasting manner, to know what’s on the to-do list, because it’s all scheduled electronically. Plus, ah, there is a language barrier. The mgmt. staff and the maintenance folks are nearly all fluent in Spanish, but most of the maintenance guys are minimally fluent in English. Guess which language is used by the software? Uh-huh, exactly. Plus, whether that software keeps things on the list, or how it’s doled out to the few guys doing the work…it’s a mess. Getting a notification in, versus getting it actually seen to, and then getting it really repaired, are all hurdles. Basically, this is a big-city apartment complex, it’s fairly middle class, and the bulk of the residents are Hispanic, with varying from truly bilingual to essentially Spanish-only and minimally English-capable. There are many black residents, and some white residents. It is, for the most part, a good place, and not a lot of fighting or noise or bad behavior, such that the kids can play inside the complex, to preserve their parents’ sanity, no doubt, haha. I am just not used to apartment living, and I grew up without much close contact with other people. (There was a trailer park next door, but I wasn’t supposed to go over there. Remember how I’ve said my parents were overprotective and overly controlling about their handicapped son? Yeah. I suspect this went beyond the handicap and into their ideas on risky behavior, morals, and so on.) It was only in college that I had my first real exposure to other guys and girls 24/7. (And oh, wow, I was sheltered, but some of them…man….) I grew up far more used to adult company and manners and rules of behavior, and my parents were in their mid-30’s when I was born, so they were about 10 years older than most of my schoolmates’ parents. So this probably affects my outlook all over the place.
With the apartment complex, I think the main thing is, hey, whoever the investor landlord is, or the company, that’s pretty hands-off, remote. The complex is here to make money for the investors. Repairs are at whatever minimum they can do, I think. Exactly how certified the maintenance guys are for plumbing, electrical, HVAC, and so on? Hmm, dunno. It is actually probably average to above-average, I suspect, compared to other apartment complexes. The rent is cheap to average for the city. In other words, it could be much worse than this. Ah, also keep in mind, I’ve lived in middle class homes all my life, and only the house I grew up in was not in a “subdivision” as such. Both the home my parents moved us to when I was a senior and then in college and after, until they passed away, and the home I moved to thereafter, were in subdivisions, one upper middle class, the other older and very middle class. In other words, I am not used to apartment living, still. 🙂 I grew up lower middle to middle class, then had a yuppie period, then back to middle class before my current situation after my grandmother passed away. I am still not quite used to this, and probably prone to fuss some.
(Note that comment about a bug-bomb was to pre-empt whatever might be the current situation in the storage space. Houston humidity is, ah, quite naturally conducive to anything with more than four legs, much like one’s salads here from Louisiana and Hawaii. The storage spaces, at a site elsewhere in town, are very typical, unheated and un-air-conditioned, and supposedly, they come along periodically for pest control, but, ah, one suspects that is not so strictly adhered to in practice. So my idea to DIY, in hopes of not bringing them to my new rent house, when that happens. One cannot simply vent a sector of the crew cylinder to space, for, ah, quick pest control, say. One considerable disadvantage to the overall bonuses of life planetside.)
But yeah, unless it’s something really obvious, like the kitchen ceiling that first year, then it’s necessary to keep nagging at them to get someone by to do a repair that isn’t deemed as high priority. That, in order to get it done in a timely way, or at all. But that is, apparently, de rigueur, part of apartment living.
Townhomes appear to be, at least when viewing them, better about that. Whether that’s so when one is actually living there, I’m not sure.
From random YouTube views, I’ve seen a couple of what appear to be Dutch townhomes. Nice, neat, orderly, and probably upscale, or maybe very middle class. Comparable to townhome complexes I’ve seen here, but more, well, Dutch. 😀 I need to rearrange my schedule and set up a CD player so I can do more review of language audio.
Things at the moment here are OK at the apartments. I plan to remind the mgmt. about the dryer vent, so as to avoid them saying I didn’t report it, and hopefully to get it fixed before move-out. If my friend will get his butt over here this week like he said he’d do, I would’ve already done so. (I have to sign a release form in order for them to have a 3rd party contractor come in to do the work. Office staffers, like my friend, keep “getting busy and forgetting” to come by, or I could’ve already signed such a paper. Grr. Note to self: If ever where the office is not on the same side of the highway as one’s residence, make sure one’s residence is on the same side. One does not really want to cross a four lane highway without a light, with oncoming traffic, and guess wrong. The pedestrian will not win that. I’m not in the mood to risk it without an assist from a fully-sighted person.)
According to the Guardian,
“Notre Dame was within ’15 to 30 minutes’ of complete destruction as firefighters battled to stop flames reaching its Gothic bell towers, French authorities revealed on Tuesday.
“The disaster was averted by members of the Paris fire brigade who risked their lives to remain inside the burning building to create a wall of water between the raging fire and two towers on the west facade. …
“If the wooden frame of the towers had caught fire it could have sent the bells – the largest of which, the Emmanuel Bell, weighs 13 tonnes – crashing down, potentially causing the collapse of both Gothic towers.”
“Note to self: When working on the oaken roof of Notre Dame, don’t pause for a smoke, then drop the butt on the floor.”
Yeah, wanna bet? “Everybody” in Europe smokes.
Especially, avoid the can where you throw the used oil rags and paper towels.
Could be a smoker, but much much more likely to be a chance spark from a welding tool or other electrical tool. They were doing renovation work up on the roof and spire. This work is always chancy when it comes to fires. My spouse had an overnight gig, years ago, patrolling the attic of Harvard’s Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology (where I worked as a grad student) for several weeks just to make certain that no fires sprung up several hours after the workmen left (instructions: “if you smell smoke, run like hell, then report.”)
Such a terrible loss of the roof and spire of Notre Dame. I’ve visited the place three times when I took students to Paris and attended Easter Mass, despite not being Catholic or observant, there for the incredible experience of it. Here’s to the healing of Notre Dame.
Restoring Tirnamardi?
Perhaps a short circuit, or a faulty breaker. There are many possibilities. All of them sad. I for one will enjoy watching the new roof and tower go up.
From what I’ve read, the spire had already been replaced with this more elaborate concrete one in the 18th century, so replacing it again isn’t falsifying history.
Any 800 year old building has had bits replaced over the years; surviving fire or flooding or bombing and being rebuilt just becomes part of their history.
The cathedral of Reims that got shelled and burned down in WW2 was rebuilt. Instead of the massive oak roof beams (which in the middle ages were tarred against rot, making them a lot easier to burn – hence the stone ceiling vaults underneath them, to help protect the inside of the church if the roof burned, those mediaeval builders were no fools), they replaced them in concrete – oak beams that size are impossible to source nowadays.
It doesn’t take away the beauty or the history of the building, that the scars of all it’s been through are visible in such details of its fabric.
Building something modern in its place would be an abomination!
As to the cause, smoking is very much less popular in Europe than it used to be. The renovations appear to have been both the most likely cause of the disaster, and the reason much of the artwork was spared, as it had been taken out for the renovations…
(To clarify, my comment earlier about a modern structure wasn’t intended to be on the original site, but elsewhere, somewhere near there. My idea was, if they could save whatever portion of the original building, then retain that, and elsewhere build something, perhaps in the medieval Gothic style, but with as long-lasting and safe materials as possible. My reasoning being that the cathedral is still used for church services by a present-day congregation of parishioners. But fortunately, the damage to the original building isn’t as severe as they’d feared, making restoration and renovation practicable. I would not want to disrespect the original building or site by putting up some “modern” 21st century style building on the old site; certainly not. I’d consider that a terrible disservice to history and style and so much else, as Hanneke said. The cathedral shows in a solid, tangible form how European culture formed and grew since the original construction. All that change in ideas, ways of living, tremendous changes in the people of Europe and how they lived, all have some thread carried forward in how the building changed over time. Heh, the French language itself went from something only a step or two away from Medieval Latin and Common Romance to Old French, Middle French, and on into Modern French. That’s how much history is there. I’d surely agree with Hanneke and others, not to do any disservice to the original structure, and for anything else in the area to take that into account in putting up new buildings in the area around the cathedral. It was not my intention for anyone to think I’d advocate just sweeping it all away and putting up some present-day building with no notion of what was there. And both from knowing French and something of the Norman French that went into Middle English, that also goes into my appreciation for history.)
I checked, briefly, the wiki articles on both the Magna Carta (Libertatum) and the Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral. (I see my retention isn’t as good as it should be. I’ll need to reread those.)
As a point of comparison, the Magna Carta Libertatum in 1215 was a bit more than halfway during the initial, bulk phase of building the cathedral of Notre Dame. (The wiki article claims that as from the 1160’s to about 1260, a century later.) And since King John et al. probably still spoke Norman French and Middle English, with still some connections to Norman France and the French crown, in intrigues and treaties, then it’s likely the English Norman rulers (and the Saxons such as Robin of the Hood, Robin of Locksley, if he indeed existed, or those like him) would have known something of the construction of the large new cathedral being built in what was a much smaller Paris. England and France were still sorting out who might ultimately control what, between England and the duchy of Normandy and France. England was busy with civil unrest and trouble within their quarreling nobles, and despite the Magna Carta, was headed for war within, some decades later, while France was still forming out of several medieval kingdoms and duchies.
That’s the backdrop of what was going on just in that portion of Europe, while the cathedral was first being built. Half-formed nations, and chaos, and even then, social changes based on contention between the advancing situation of the emerging merchant / bourgeoisie class and the nobles, and infighting among the nobles. That, with the influx of ideas and trade goods from the Middle East, all of which was starting to bring Europe out of the Middle Ages and towards the Renaissance.
Huh, 1066 to 1215 — If we’d all been born around 800 years earlier, we’d be only four years after the Magna Carta, 153 years after the Norman Conquest, and a reissue would be made in 1219 of the Magna Carta. How very apt for comparison. What a funny coincidence. I’d never before considered how soon after the Norman Conquest, the Magna Carta treaty was. Interesting that while Norman French and Saxon English were still at odds and heading towards merger into the future England, that so early on, they concocted something to ensure the lesser nobles, and by extension, the commoners, might have some legal protection towards parliament and democracy and limitation of the powers of the feudal monarchy.
And meanwhile, in the heart of the city of Paris, the heart of what would eventually become France, they were building a great cathedral as an expression of permanence of church and state on Earth. Hmm. Which the English were still following, but would have their own shift thanks to King Henry VIII’s love life and problems getting an heir, and the independent-minded future Archbiship of Canterbury, Thomas à Beckett, a few hundred years hence.
That’s what’s so wonderful about history: it’s a story of the patterns of human thought and ways of living, the story of progress, regress, and change, like rivers of time and ideas and technical know-how, flowing and changing and recombining, down the centuries. So much that even language and entire cultures and peoples change into new ones.
I am very glad they’ll be able to restore the cathedral. Paul’s right, that gives them the whole summer and much of autumn to “make hay while the sun shines” on restoration, before winter kicks in again.
The wiki article highlights multiple periods in which Notre Dame was damaged and repaired, including damage incurred during the French Revolution, repairs after, the Napoleonic Era, the 3ièm République, and into the later 1800’s, before more modern restoration efforts in the late 20th century and twice in the 21st, to today. — A few of those were not so much geared to historical restoration, as to simply adding or rebuilding what was there. The spire has had two iterations since it was put in place, for instance. So as Hanneke pointed out, it’s a living construction, undergoing frequent modifications over the centuries, so it’s a mix of old and new, and it’s in current use.