Anonymous wrote:I'm shocked there weren't sprinklers or anything.

In an 850 year old cathedral?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am Parisian and am so sad about this. So glad we visited last year with the kids. Probably due to construction.

Same. I can imagine it will be many years before it's restored.

Keep in mind it took 200 years to build.

Anonymous wrote:Francois-Henri Pinault has already pledged 100 million euros to rebuilding.

Good for him. Hope other ultra rich French citizens do too.

Just don’t sell the naming rights....

Francois-Henri Pinault has already pledged 100 million euros to rebuilding.

They saved the towers and 2/3rds of the roof.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where are the fire trucks?! Why can’t they get this under control??

Read the news. The core of the structure is wood (from hundreds of years ago.) It's not like this building would pass today's fire code standards.

And it’s on an island. So one side of the cathedral grounds, which is a park, is on the river.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is tragic, but the French will restore it. That's one thing they do well, invest in the arts/culture and its preservation. It will take a long time, but it will happen. We don't do that and let our monuments go to pot: i.e. the Tidal Basin and the Jefferson Memorial. It's sinking.

Actually it’s Americans who have been funding the restoration of Norte Dame. You have misinformation. It is not in French culture to do fundraisers, etc to restore stuff like they do in the US. And the French government isn’t willing to pay for even half. I am French married to an American, I’m not just making this up.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/paris-crumbling-notre-dame-cathedral-hopes-wealthy-americans-will-help-save-it/

+1. The news reports indicate that money coming in for the restoration was very slow, and they were very worried about the safety of the building for the future.

Well now this makes me think it was an inside job. Kind of like insurance Fraud. What better way to get the world to pony up than to burn it down.

For insurance fraud to work, there needs to be insurance, numbnuts.

+1 No one is going to provide fire insurance for a priceless ancient building built of wood.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is tragic, but the French will restore it. That's one thing they do well, invest in the arts/culture and its preservation. It will take a long time, but it will happen. We don't do that and let our monuments go to pot: i.e. the Tidal Basin and the Jefferson Memorial. It's sinking.

Actually it’s Americans who have been funding the restoration of Norte Dame. You have misinformation. It is not in French culture to do fundraisers, etc to restore stuff like they do in the US. And the French government isn’t willing to pay for even half. I am French married to an American, I’m not just making this up.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/paris-crumbling-notre-dame-cathedral-hopes-wealthy-americans-will-help-save-it/

+1. The news reports indicate that money coming in for the restoration was very slow, and they were very worried about the safety of the building for the future.

Well now this makes me think it was an inside job. Kind of like insurance Fraud. What better way to get the world to pony up than to burn it down.

For insurance fraud to work, there needs to be insurance, numbnuts.

Anonymous wrote:Where are the fire trucks?! Why can’t they get this under control??

Read the news. The core of the structure is wood (from hundreds of years ago.) It's not like this building would pass today's fire code standards.

I don’t understand why they can’t put this out. It was not that big hours ago. I don’t understand why they couldn’t stop it hours ago.

Where are the fire trucks?! Why can’t they get this under control??

I am watching the live coverage on TF1, and the aerial view shows nothing left inside, just a massive fire in the entire thing. And they did not get all the art, etc out in time.

If you want to see real coverage, go to latvdefrance.com.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My first thoughts jump to terrorism when anything like this happens.

There’s scaffolding all around the area of the fire. My guess is it’s construction related. I try not to think the worst of people.

A French construction worker's cigarette most likely.

Or sparks flying from a saw.

For those who can’t quite understand the significance of this event, here is a statement from travel journalist Rick Steves:

Seeing today's news about the fire at the Notre-Dame Cathedral has been heartbreaking.

Imagine the faith of the people who built this great stone wonder. They broke ground in 1163 with the hope that someday their great-great-great-great-great-great grandchildren might attend the dedication Mass, which finally took place two centuries later. Master masons supervised the construction, but the people did much of the grunt work themselves for free — hauling the huge stones from distant quarries, digging a 30-foot-deep trench to lay the foundation, and treading like rats on a wheel designed to lift the stones up, one by one.

And then imagine being a simple bareheaded peasant, entering the dim medieval light of the church for the first time. Take a minute to let your pupils dilate, then take in the subtle, mysterious light show that God beams through the stained-glass windows. And listen as the priest intones the words of the Mass that echo through the hall: Terribilis est locus iste — "This place is awe-inspiring."

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is tragic, but the French will restore it. That's one thing they do well, invest in the arts/culture and its preservation. It will take a long time, but it will happen. We don't do that and let our monuments go to pot: i.e. the Tidal Basin and the Jefferson Memorial. It's sinking.

Actually it’s Americans who have been funding the restoration of Norte Dame. You have misinformation. It is not in French culture to do fundraisers, etc to restore stuff like they do in the US. And the French government isn’t willing to pay for even half. I am French married to an American, I’m not just making this up.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/paris-crumbling-notre-dame-cathedral-hopes-wealthy-americans-will-help-save-it/

+1. The news reports indicate that money coming in for the restoration was very slow, and they were very worried about the safety of the building for the future.

Well now this makes me think it was an inside job. Kind of like insurance Fraud. What better way to get the world to pony up than to burn it down.

Oh come on.