Aliya Abreu
It was my third visit to Paris, but my first to the Notre Dame Cathedrale, which was away from that part of the city where the Eiffel Tower stands tall. My friend Shruthi and I had decided to visit the Notre Dame, Shakespeare and Company- the bookstore, the Latin quarter of the city, and Sainte Chapelle in the morning, and then do the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe later that evening. We had it all sorted out. But what we hadn’t taken into consideration was that this was Paris, and we didn’t have the city all to ourselves. Thousands of others had exactly the same plans as us- which meant that the queues to enter each place would take a lifetime.
We had to drop something from our plan, and a year later, I can safely say I am SO GLAD we didn’t drop the Notre Dame. Shruthi and I couldn’t get enough pictures with the Cathedrale - both outside and inside. Being students of English literature, the place held special significance for us, because, well Victor Hugo and the hunchback of Notre Dame. I guess the place had double significance for me, being a student of French as well. French students would agree that no education in French is complete without doing at least one school project on the monuments of France - in which Notre Same features significantly.
Inside the Cathedrale, it was impossible to capture all the stained glass paintings on our Motorola phone cameras. The stained glass was simply beautiful. Shruthi, being the more religious of the two of us (to put it mildly) decided to light a candle inside the Cathedrale as well.
Once outside again, we decided to click more pictures with the facade in the background. It was freezing, being springtime in France, but Shruthi was all about good pictures - unlike me, who was all about not letting myself freeze to death, it being around 15 degrees, which is way below the temperature I can handle. She forced me to take out my jacket for one picture though, and I can feel my bones chill even today when I look at it.
Once done, we took a round to the right side of the Cathedrale (more pictures there), and then to the back. I fell in love with the view of the back of the Cathedrale, far deeper than the front. The steeple could be seen so clearly from the back, and towered tall, and the springtime flowers of the garden added to the beauty of the structure. The only thing that was a blot to the pictures so to speak was the scaffolding put up to renovate the Cathedrale. Views of the back of the cathedrale from different parts of the Rive Gauche proved to be equally beautiful with blue skies and fluffy clouds making it picture-perfect.
Fast forward to Springtime in France a year later, when I got a BBC alert on my phone that the Cathedrale was on fire. At first I thought to myself it can’t be that bad - they’ll put it out. But as the minutes passed, it just got worse - and the steeple burned down and fell. I’ve never felt so sad about a monument burning. If we went back there right now, it wouldn’t be the same Cathedrale, even if they re-build it. Ii will no longer be the Cathedrale of my memory.
The days I walked in the streets of Paris were some of the happiest of my life. I felt free, and like the responsible adult I’m not. I couldn’t bear it if any harm were to come to Paris. Please Paris, always remain the same, with your Eiffel Tower, and Louvre, your gardens and basilicas and cathedrales, and your multi-cultural identity. That’s what makes you truly special.
