For as many years as I care to remember the Notre Dame in Paris, France, has been a building I enjoyed looking at having first got the bug for church architecture when I was much younger reading up about Cathedrals in my Ladybird book which telling I still have in the bookcase.
I also it has to be said had an interest in how fires start in buildings and what lessons can be learnt when it comes to procedures, how we go about building things plus how buildings of great antiquity can be repaired after fires or war such as at Dresden, Coventry and the Balkan coasts in the 1990's.
Watching helplessly as the news broke of Monday's fire that coincided with teatime here fills me with sadness because whatever ones religious beliefs may be, that building was a important part of the culture heritage of the continent of Europe and the Normans were a part of our history when a good number of our own cathedrals and abbeys were built.
It was a building that played important roles in the history of the French nation over 855 years and like a number of similar fires here, it also appears to be connected with renovation work.
While much such as the whole roof and spire were lost, the good news of sorts is it is possible to restore it as we ourselves did at York and famously Windsor Palace to something like what it was.
Moreover there is much goodwill backed by money from people in France and beyond to see this medieval building restored in a phased way probably starting with structural work going into roofing before the bigger task of interior repairs and the business of repair or replacement of the organ which while not being burned has no doubt suffered from the intense heat and dust.
Let it happen.
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