We live in a very visual world and really have for the last half century or so….like many, I think this era was really initiated with the assassination of President John F Kennedy in 1963 and we have been trying to process the raw emotions that this capability brings ever since. It can be an extraordinary thing like Apollo 11 and the first walk on the moon or it can be devastating as was the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. One thing is clear….euphoric or tragic, it has the capacity to bring humanity together.
One such occurrence happened on April 15, 2019 when a fire raged through the 850 year old symbol of French culture, the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris. The devastating fire was gut wrenchingly displayed across every news service for days and at least for me, there was a helplessness felt and a sense that yet another part of our collective soul had been erased. In a heartening display of fortitude and national pride, France put their collective heads down and went to work to restore, faithfully, this beautiful Gothic structure…it will take decades but in the end, it will be done.
As I reflected on that tragedy though, I felt exceptionally fortunate in that I had the great pleasure of attending a Christmas morning service at Notre Dame Cathedral in 2017….a happenstance occurrence of me being in the right place at the right time. So, during this Christmas season, I want to share my visual takeaway from that great Christmas Day in 2017 when I was indeed blessed to enjoy an incredibly meaningful Christmas morning, made much more so by the tragic fire that occurred sixteen months later. I’ve included exterior and interior photos of Notre Dame before and during the morning services and a short video of the service subsequent to the one I sat for. The video is largely uncut and I decided to keep it as such as I think it will be almost two minutes well utilized and hopefully savored.
With a eye towards ending with an uplifting thought, let me offer you a place in Paris that you’ve possibly not heard about and yet…..it possesses some of the same extraordinary beauty that Notre Dame was known for and will again one day. Sainte-Chapelle was a royal chapel constructed in the Gothic style in the mid-1200s to house the Royal collection of Passion Relics including Christ’s Crown of Thorns. It is located just two blocks to the west of Notre Dame on the Île de la Cité and it is a breathtakingly beautiful structure that almost visually defies the laws of physics. The supporting members that carry the structure are amazingly sparse….so much so that the shear magnitude of stained glass seems improbable if not impossible. And because of this, the light flowing through the glass is overwhelmingly vivid…dancing across the floor like rose petals in a whirlwind. In truth, it is perhaps one of my favorite places to visit anywhere. This was not my first trip to Saint Chapelle and I never come to Paris without a visit here….something I can’t say about any other attraction in Paris. It is truly that special.
So, enjoy this short “Walk” with us as we wish you the most joyous of Christmas seasons! Joyeux Noël to one and all!