"Fire at Notre Dame Cathedral"
Okay, I know I'm quite behind, but I felt that I needed to talk about the Notre Dame fire because it is something that I hold very near and dear to my heart.
I don't want to have a huge discussion on the article I read because it's essentially an overview of what happened, how it happened, what comments and public statements have been made, and by who.
During the summer between eighth grade and freshman year, my friend Ceinwyn and I decided to take a two week trip together to see parts of Europe that neither of us had seen. The first location on our bucket list was Paris - we'd taken European history together in middle school and were truly amazed by the history of all the nations and we wanted to see everything we'd read about in person. During that trip, we went to see the famous French cathedral, Notre Dame. It was (and will remain) an architectural masterpiece; there's really nothing that can quite compare. It included all these beautiful ornamentations on the flying buttresses that had been hand carved, intricate window designs, and a lot, a lot, a lot of steep stairs. We very quickly decided that sitting on the terrace watching birds and people was our favourite memory from the trip.
I sat in my math class watching the location of one of my fondest memories burn down. I don't quite know how to describe the feeling; it could've been loss or sadness or shock, but it felt like something was being torn down. I cannot imagine the unbearable intensity of that unnamable feeling that the people of France must have had and must still have. Something may just be a national monument, it may be something historical, but for many people it's a memory, it's a feeling, it's a moment of happiness. So I want to just take this time to mourn the loss of le coeur de la France, the Notre Dame.
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