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Notre Dame *is* for them. It is their heritage, their country, their civilization; for the majority in France, it is their religion. Even in the crudest terms, it is their economy: Notre Dame is crucial to France being the world's top tourist destination.
Notre Dame is Paris’s most popular destination for tourists. In other words, it’s the biggest tourist attraction in one of the world’s biggest tourist cities. Before the fire broke out, it was open 10 or more hours a day, seven days a week.
About 30,000 people visited the cathedral each day, and nearly 13 million people visit each year. Some come for the stunning Gothic architecture; others make the trip to pray and view sacred items in the cathedral’s reliquary, including the crown of thorns.
The cathedral has been free to enter, but visitors were required to pay a tiny fee to enter the crypt (€6, or just over $6)
The gothic revivalist architect Augustus Pugin fainted when he first encountered Notre Dame, so overwhelmed was he by its beauty.
The gothic revivalist architect Augustus Pugin fainted when he first encountered Notre Dame, so overwhelmed was he by its beauty.
Proust found it unbearable to think of Notre Dame converted into a “museum, concert hall, or casino.” Notre-Dame has occupied the heart of Paris for the better part of a millennium.
With its twin medieval towers rising from the small central island wedged between the storied left and right banks. IT IS FRANCE.
This was a gift to France, all of it, and only those who can imagine a France without joy, art, music, architecture, hope and the sublime could say, "Well, that's nothing for us." What are *you,* then? Machines? People without souls?
What could be more important for France than to preserve the things that make it France, throughout the generations, and unite the French together in this sign of a unique French genius?
French purchasing power is just going UP:
GDP (purchasing power parity): $2.826 trillion (2017 est.)
$2.783 trillion (2016 est.)
$2.75 trillion (2015 est.)
There is enough for everyone. But above all, for the greatest cathedral ever to be built.
GDP (purchasing power parity): $2.826 trillion (2017 est.)
$2.783 trillion (2016 est.)
$2.75 trillion (2015 est.)
There is enough for everyone. But above all, for the greatest cathedral ever to be built.
Notre Dame is France. The gift is to the French. If you are French, the gift is to you.
