
I’m not a religious person. But, when I look at a beautiful cathedral, what brings awe, what induces awe is the idea that architecture, you know, a beautiful cathedral, a beautiful building. Jason Silva
Avoiding climate breakdown will require cathedral thinking. We must lay the foundation while we may not know exactly how to build the ceiling. Greta Thunburg.
I’m going in. whispered Michele Stern, while looking at the South Apse of Notre Dame Cathedral, in a voice similar to Luke Skywalker’s as he dropped into the trench of the Death Star on his final run.
First, the plan was to stay at Michele’s parents’ retreat – it actually says retreat on the front door – in Ireland as a home base to travel around the country. Then Susan Rayfeld, one of Michele’s second cousins, invited us to her part of the world, Die, France, for the cousins’ Re-u. Michele wanted to go, and I suggested that, since we were going to be in France anyway, let’s go to Paris to see the renovated Notre Dame. Thinking about it in California, traveling around France in close to 100°F sounded easier than it really was.
First, we took a train to Paris. In both Europe and Japan, fast trains are a primary mode of transportation, and they should be in the US too. They are cheaper, almost infinitely easier to get on, more comfortable to ride, and we can watch the countryside almost silently glide by.


From about the time we got off the plane in Barcelona, Spain, Michele started trying to get us tickets to Notre Dame to no avail. Everybody – and, believe me, contrary to what everybody says, Paris is stuffed with people, mostly tourists in July – wants to see the refurbished Notre Dame. The Authority has implemented a random ticket release program, theoretically making the distribution of tickets fairer. In our case, it didn’t work, and we were never able to get tickets. Rick Visnes had suggested Sainte-Chapelle as a place to see, so on the first day, we wandered down there to see if we could get in.

The line at Sainte-Chapelle was impossibly long, but close to Notre Dame, so we wandered over to Notre Dame to check out that situation. There were two lines: one for people with tickets, moving very slowly, and another for walk-ins, moving at a fast shuffle. We fast shuffled right on in.


When I first saw Notre Dame at the 2018 Re-u, I was unimpressed. By the time I visited Paris, I had already seen many European cathedrals; some, like Notre-Dame de Reims, are bigger and much higher, while others are more distinctive, such as the Orvieto Cathedral or the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Strasbourg. Notre Dame in Paris had a neglected, grubby feeling, especially compared to the Panthéon, which seemed alive, surrounded by new posters celebrating Simone Veil, a Holocaust survivor who led the battle to legalise abortion in France and who was the first president of the European Union.

Now, after the post-fire cleanup, the cathedral looks new, bright, and even sassy.



After we shuffled into the cathedral, we continued shuffling down the side Ambulatory, past the Transcept, around the Ambulatory behind the Choir, and then back out, by the obligatory – but not officially named – gift shop. We were packed in like sardines, giving the Ambulatories a feeling of being misnamed. It seemed as if our fellow tourists, those who aquired tickets, were allowed in the Nave, so the whole cathedral was packed. The packed cathedral was both annoying and, with a background of sacred music, alive and sacred.






Leaving Notre Dame, I was reminded that Europe is predominantly Christian and that Christianity is deeply rooted in European culture. Over the last two millennia, the two have coevolved together. From a tourist’s viewpoint, Europe doesn’t seem to have the rabid Christianity that some Protestant sects have in the US, but European culture is deeply rooted in Christianity, and Notre Dame, being a national French institution, is part of that. I’m glad we had a chance to see it in its new glory.
We saw Notre Dame on the Fourth of July and finished the day at a club called New Morning, with an American institution, Jazz. The Jazz Band featured Branford Marsalis on saxophone, Joey Calderazzo on piano, Eric Revis on bass, and Justin Faulkner on drums. They were excellent.

Beautiful! On the coevolution of Christianity and Europe and distinctions between US and European Christianity I’d love to read a post that looks at those questions through the lens of 1632 and its sister books…
I look forward to seeing Notre Dame, but not in the summer.
Saint Chapelle remains my favorite place in Paris. It’s like being inside a jewel box with light coming in all those stained glass windows. Linda and I went to an evening concert there. The music was glorious, the violinist was stunningly handsome …. And the light..
However I too want to see the newly refurbed Notre Dame. In my mind I’m planning a trip, a few days in Paris, a few days In Strasbourg, and a few in Lyon, including that museum and some wonderful food. This is all your fault.