Notre Dame de Paris

[Foggy]

Our women's soccer loving daughter and SIL got tickets to 3 of the Olympic matches this summer and so will spend some time in Paris.

That's awesome, V.

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

Wonderful!

[northland10]

I thought the current roof work was essentially a "temporary" one to allow for use of the facility again. The fuller reconstruction of something closer to the original will take many many years longer.

One of the organists told us at a conference that the organ will be at least partially playable by December. There is still a great deal of cleaning and revoicing that will take years to accomplish as happens with most instruments. That they did not lose the instrument is impressive. Dust, smoke, and heat can really cause issues.

[RTH10260]

[RTH10260]

‘Miraculous’: exquisite paintings saved from Notre Dame fire back on view
Five years after the inferno at the Paris cathedral, a new exhibition shows the rescued art treasures

Kim Willsher in Paris
Sun 14 Apr 2024 06.00 CEST

There was a moment on 15 April 2019 as the flames consuming Notre Dame cathedral roared into the evening sky when it seemed all would be lost.

Firefighters prevented the blaze from reaching the bell towers – whose collapse would have almost certainly brought down the facade – and from destroying the bells, the Grand Organ and the Parisian monument’s stained-glass rosette windows.

The bee hives on the roof also survived, along with dozens of treasures, including artworks, ancient books and relics saved in extremis as a chain of firefighters, police and city council workers formed to extract them.

In the weeks after, as the fire, smoke and water damage was assessed, a unique collection of 17th-century religious paintings was removed from the cathedral, damp but mostly undamaged. The 13 “Mays” – part of a series of 76 large oil works painted by the best artists in France between 1630 and 1707 – had hung in the cathedral’s dimly lit side chapels, often overlooked by visitors.

Now they will go on public display, having been restored by experts from Mobilier National, the cultural body charged with conserving France’s historical objects, before being returned to Notre Dame in advance of its planned reopening in December.

Emmanuel Pénicaut, director of Mobilier National collections, said: “We were lucky to get them out quite quickly with just a little water damage and dust. It was rather miraculous.



https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/ ... exhibition