<story><title>Notre-Dame cathedral: Firefighters tackle blaze in Paris</title><url>https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-47941794</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>timothevs</author><text>Today, we are all French. As a student of European History, I want to curl up and cry. I proposed to my beautiful wife of 11 years beneath the spire of Notre Dame. We fell in love walking along the bouquinistes. There is a terrible empty feeling in my heart this afternoon. It is like losing a part of myself this day.&lt;p&gt;Yes, I know the Notre Dame will be built again. But that might not happen till after I am long gone.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>MR4D</author><text>You have a great story (albeit with a touch of sadness).&lt;p&gt;I would think that this type of event would bring the French together in a way like few other events could. I&amp;#x27;d expect Gilets Jaunes movement to subside quickly.&lt;p&gt;Yes, today we are all French - and expect that we all want to see Our Lady rebuilt. Faster, better, stronger, and much more fire-retardant than in the past.&lt;p&gt;The Windsor Castle fire of 1992 was refurbished in 5 years, [0] and although a national treasure, it was not at the level of the Notre Dame. But it was rebuilt, and was even completed ahead of schedule.&lt;p&gt;The cost doesn&amp;#x27;t matter - it will probably be well over a billion. But you will see concerts, TV specials, and all sorts of fund raisers to rebuild her.&lt;p&gt;And in this you will see the best thing of all - the French (and even people like me who are only French on occasions like this) showing our love to rebuild her.&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;This is the message you should hold in your heart today - one of love and empathy, and dare I say, the grace of God that she was intended to foster.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;[0] - &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;1992_Windsor_Castle_fire&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;1992_Windsor_Castle_fire&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Notre-Dame cathedral: Firefighters tackle blaze in Paris</title><url>https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-47941794</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>timothevs</author><text>Today, we are all French. As a student of European History, I want to curl up and cry. I proposed to my beautiful wife of 11 years beneath the spire of Notre Dame. We fell in love walking along the bouquinistes. There is a terrible empty feeling in my heart this afternoon. It is like losing a part of myself this day.&lt;p&gt;Yes, I know the Notre Dame will be built again. But that might not happen till after I am long gone.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>treis</author><text>&amp;gt;Yes, I know the Notre Dame will be built again. But that might not happen till after I am long gone.&lt;p&gt;The cathedral is made of stone.  It will survive the fire and won&amp;#x27;t need to be rebuilt.  &amp;quot;Just&amp;quot; a new roof will be needed and remediation for the fire.  Just in quotes because clearly that&amp;#x27;s still a massive undertaking which will take years and a whole lot of dollars.&lt;p&gt;The spire is clearly a great loss.  As are the statues that were on the roof.  Hopefully the stained glass makes it out ok, but that&amp;#x27;s probably optimistic.  There&amp;#x27;s also the artifacts and art work in the interior that will be damaged.  But the iconic bell towers remain.  The statues on the facade are likely undamaged.  The interior nave and apse will survive.  After restoration it will still be essentially the same even if we lose some irreplaceable artifacts.</text></comment>