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| Then: C19th chimera gracing our kitchen wall since, well, forever |
In the way of such things, we were only home a few days from our journey to the City of Lights and a stroll past a recovering famous cathedral, when the first of this year's concert subscriptions popped up, appropriately entitled, Notre Dame. Here we were taken on another journey by the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra and Choir through a choice Baroque selection of the vast quantity of music composed for and performed through the ages within this gothic masterpiece.
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Then, again: Your Correspondent in 2006,
the last time both Paris & Our Lady was visited |
From a song by Hildegard von Bingen to a commissioned work by Australian Hugh Ronzani via court songs and chansons, polyphonic chants and extracts from opéra-ballets and whatnot, by the likes of Charles Tessier, Jean-Philippe Rameau, Marin Marais* and Jean Baptiste Lully and plenty more besides, the concert was interwoven with a two-person play about a young engineering graduate who joins the restoration team in Paris to work on the cathedral, is guided through the edifice by the spirit of Victor Hugo and is there at the scene of the 2019 Great Conflagration.
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| Now: The cathedral in 2024 |
Projected old film footage and images of the cathedral, then and now, including the fire itself, formed a backdrop of "cathedral windows", making the whole concert a quite moving experience. Especially as we'd spent time walking around Notre Dame only those few days earlier taking in the progress of this latest restoration to the calamitous and disastrous result of the previous works, the play's subject.
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| Coming along nicely |
Notre Dame is as busy as ever with tourists, there to bear witness to the massive project, and there's even stadium seating in the forecourt, presumably for visitors to sit and watch the reconstruction at leisure. We felt like we had a glimpse into our shared European cultural history, linking hands with the generations before us who would mostly all have lived with or seen a work-in-progress of this kind, for churches and cathedrals and castles and other engineering landmarks took generations to build and seemed constantly to be burned down and rebuilt, only to be burned down and rebuilt yet again.
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| But a long way to go |
Even in a young city like Sydney, in my own lifetime I got to see the finishing spires finally installed on St. Mary's Cathedral, two hundred years after the first foundation stone was laid. Civil engineering's mainstays of roads, bridges, sewage systems and the like might be built in a single generation, but beauteous cultural landmarks seem to have to take forever if they are to last forever.
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| Florist nearby with the late winter offerings |
Speaking of beauteous, how lovely are these bunches of wattle seen outside this Parisian florist? We took a late afternoon stroll around Île Saint-Louis after our Notre Dame inspection and the cold weather necessitated a hunt for something warming. Which we duly found and can highly recommend!
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Also nearby, for a restorative coffee
and pint or so of hot chocolate :) |
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| And the best Crème Brûlée ever! |
* Fun fact: We stayed in the Marais district this visit!
Image credits: Flying With Hands
Glad you survived the Marais and thus "Gypsies, runaway monks, swamped students, scoundrels of all nations, such as Spaniards, Italians, Germans, and all religions, Jews, Christians, Mohammedans, idol worshippers, begging by day, swarming out at night as gangs of robbers..." [Hugo]
ReplyDeleteWell, and on your return in addition this concert by the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra - this comes close to serendipity.
Welcome back, signora Pipistrello.
Thank you, dear Sean. I dare say, I didn't notice any swarming gangs of robbers or other scoundrels of note whilst there, so I must blend seamlessly into M. Hugo's list of Marais reprobates :)
DeleteHow did our beloved wattle get to Paris? And do Paris citizens know where the wattle comes from, when they buy a bouquet?
ReplyDeleteHello, dear Hels, and as Cro mentioned, the French do call the blossom mimosa and acknowledge it as an Australian import from the C19th. There's even a Mimosa festival in France!
DeleteWhen driving down through France I tend to avoid Paris. I haven't seen the Notre Dame since before I moved there in 1973. We call those flowers Mimosa, and they are a real sign of Spring. They only flower so well in the deep South.
ReplyDeleteHello, dear Cro, the Mimosa blossoms outside florists and carried about by shoppers were such a pop of colour on the grey-ish streets of Paris. I'm sure you'd see plenty of change to the city if you popped into Paris again.
DeleteMy favourite thing to do in Paris was to take the Metro to somewhere I'd never heard of, then walk back to my hotel. I always found it again.
DeleteHello Pipistrello, I noticed that there are large dumpsters collecting material from the restoration. I know that such a huge job will produce a corresponding amount of waste. But the parts that come from the original construction, even if charred, should be saved, perhaps made into something, and sold as souvenirs. The sound sections of wood could even be carved into little replicas of the cathedral (the actual carving work could be done in Asia if necessary!).
ReplyDelete--Jim
What a great idea, dear Jim, like the Berlin wall fragments that wended their way around the world! You can also see massive beams as formwork for the flying buttresses in one of my pics, that will need to come down when their job is done, too, which could be utilised. There's a good interactive website run by the Friends of Notre Dame which has lots of info and updates on the project but they haven't anything to say about it, so perhaps contact them! :)
DeleteSo pleased to see that the restoration of Notre Dame is progressing well......I'm afraid Charles Laughton as Quasimodo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame is always the first thing that pops into my head .... " The Bells, the bells " !!! The mimosa looks amazing as does the crème brûlée ! So lovely to see a post from you. XXXX
ReplyDeleteDear Jackie, it's so nice to see you, too! "The bells, the bells", hahah!! Yes, the crème brûlée was super delicious, and as it's only eggs and cream, can only be good for you, too :) xx
DeleteI have not been to Paris since 2010. I feel that I will never go again but that doesn't really matter. I enjoyed reading your post and seeing the Notre Dame wth cranes around it. I believed it was to be ready for the Olympics but perhaps this is as far as it will get for now.
ReplyDeleteAnd hello there, dear Rachel! I think the cathedral will be open in a sense for visitors and services some time this year, but it won't be "finished" finished for while yet. I don't think all the Olympic wishlist projects will be ready in time, but you never know how these marathon construction projects pan out.
DeleteSo HAPPY YOU GOT TO ROAM THE STREETS OF PARGI!
ReplyDeleteThank You for the update!
Hugs
Xxx
And roam we did, dearest Contessa. I've another Paris post coming and you may even see more of me :) xx
DeleteThis is my first glimpse of the ND cathedral since the fire. it was good to see.
ReplyDeleteDear Ur-spo, for some strange reason your comments sometimes migrate to the spam file for a spell in the naughty corner, so apologies for not finding you sooner. But how good to see you, too :)
DeleteYour trip sounded like a lot of fun. It's been several years since I was in Paris - always enjoy that city, it's so special. Brother lives in south of France, hope to get back there some day too.
ReplyDeleteGreat to see a photo of you - please add more.
Hugs - Mary
Thank you, dear Mary. I'll see what I might do, but no promises, mind! Hugs to you, too :)
DeleteThe renovation is coming along very nicely! The Marais is gorgeous-glad you were able to stay in such a lovely area.
ReplyDeleteOh, you're right, dear Bea, it is gorgeous. We loved where we stayed and will do so again. So much good stuff to do, see and eat all in the one spot, or nearby to it.
DeleteBritta (still "Anonymous"): Dear Pip, thank you for these wonderful lines. And the beautiful photo of you.
ReplyDeleteCan you imagine that - shortly before the Great Conflagration - The Flying Dutchman and I were there in August, and we thought: "The queue is too long, we will visit it another time!"? Which shows that one has to grasp an opportunity, and not be too lazy and take things as permanent.
I love mimosa - you call it silver wattle. And a good crème brûlée : mouthwatering.
(Instantly I pinned the address of that Café into my special "Tipps Where to go"-book, thank you).
Dear Britta, sorry to see you're still in masquerade as "Anon". How dull. Isn't life just filled with those chance and fleeting decisions we make when opportunities arise, for better or for worse. I had a chance to visit Damascus a couple of weeks before the civil war started and thought, not this trip, it'll always be there ... But, I don't often get a hankering for a hot chocolate and taking a chance on the little Cafe St. Regis proved an inspired and rewarding choice!
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