The world mourned on April 15, 2019 when the cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris burned.
Which is why it was so wonderful to watch the livestream of its reopening yesterday.
(Except the organ music. The organist was clearly remarkably gifted, but his musical selection sounded like something from a 1930s Dracula film.)
I'm sure I wasn't alone in my concerns that the cathedral would be reconstructed along hideous modern lines; but no, it seems France went out of its way to maintain the magnificence of the original structure. (A few interesting articles on the subject can be read here and here and here.)
During the reopening ceremony, touching tributes were made to the firefighters who prevented the building from burning to the ground, and the historians, carpenters, stonemasons, plasterers, and endless other craftspeople and restoration experts who helped rebuild it from the ashes.
France is to be commended for this achievement.
