On Monday, the magnificent Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris imploded in a spectacular fire that threatened to leave the 856-year-old masterpiece in ruins. It’s likely that Julia, an 11-year-old Canadian, was among the last to see this treasure of architecture and holiness untouched. Among all the other names dropped en route — the Eiffel Tower, the Palais Royale, the opera house — we stopped to gaze at the magnificent Notre Dame Cathedral. I was explaining its Gothic architecture to Julia, and Victor Hugo’s story about the hunchback of Notre Dame. It was when we hit street level again that my daughter Heather, Julia’s mother, called to say, “Are you anywhere near the fire at the Notre Dame Cathedral?” I told her she must have the wrong cathedral, that we had been there in front of it just about 30 minutes before.

Source: thestar April 17, 2019 00:22 UTC