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Notre-Dame ...

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Someone in construction once explained that, while the walls hold up the roof, the roof also supports the walls, keeping them from falling in or out. When a house is being demolished, the first thing they do is remove the roof. After that, the walls can be knocked down easily.
Hell, in St. Louis they fall down all by themselves...

I doubt many modern engineers have a clue what to do the church.
 
The Easter service, note the hard hats, hazard suits and boots:

View attachment 848179
Yes, what with maintaining social distance and praying fervently the whole building doesn't topple down on them,
it must be one of the strangest Easter Masses ever celebrated!
 
Interesting to see how much the surroundings have changed. I was trying to work out where the camera was, but I think it was probably on one of the temporary buildings put up for the Exposition Universelle of which the Tower was the centrepiece - I guess the shots of the construction are from the NE, the railway viaduct in the distance makes me think that. But most of what we see was swept away to create the Champ de Mars.
 
The construction of another Parisian landmark:

Which was not appreciated by everyone at the time. Some thought it ugly and it was slated to be eventually taken down after the exhibition for which it was built. But that never happened.
 
The construction of another Parisian landmark:

Still a rich target for satire. ;)

 

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Interesting to see how much the surroundings have changed. I was trying to work out where the camera was, but I think it was probably on one of the temporary buildings put up for the Exposition Universelle of which the Tower was the centrepiece - I guess the shots of the construction are from the NE, the railway viaduct in the distance makes me think that. But most of what we see was swept away to create the Champ de Mars.
From wikipedia :


Originally, the Champ de Mars was part of a large flat open area called Grenelle, which was reserved for market gardening. Citizens would claim small plots and exploit them by growing fruits, vegetables, and flowers for the local market. However, the plain of Grenelle was not an especially fertile place for farming.

The construction, in 1765, of the École Militaire designed by Ange-Jacques Gabriel, was the first step toward the Champ de Mars in its present form. Grounds for military drills were originally planned for an area south of the school, the current location of the place de Fontenoy. The choice to build an esplanade to the north of the school led to the erection of the noble facade which today encloses the Champ de Mars. The planners leveled the ground, surrounded it with a large ditch and a long avenue of elms, and, as a final touch, the esplanade was enclosed by a fine grille-work fence.

The Isle of Swans, formerly a riverine islet at the location of the northeastern foot of the Eiffel Tower, was, for the sake of symmetry and pleasing perspectives, attached to the shore. (Note that the Isle of Swans discussed here should not be confused with the Isle of Swans that sits in the middle of the Seine downstream and around the next bend in the river, between the fifteenth and sixteenth arrondissements.)

Jacques Charles and the Robert brothers launched the world's first hydrogen-filled balloon from the Champ-de-Mars on 27 August 1783.[1]

This place witnessed the spectacle and pageantry of some of the best-remembered festivals of the French Revolution. On 14 July 1790 the first "Federation Day" celebration (fête de la Fédération), now known as Bastille Day, was held on the Champ de Mars, exactly one year after the storming of the prison. The following year, on 17 July 1791, the massacre on the Champ de Mars took place. Jean Sylvain Bailly, the first mayor of Paris, became a victim of his own revolution and was guillotined there on 12 November 1793.

The Champ de Mars was also the site of the Festival of the Supreme Being on 8 June 1794. With a design by the painter Jacques-Louis David,[2] a massive "Altar of the Nation" was built atop an artificial mountain and surmounted by a tree of liberty.[3] The festival is regarded as the most successful of its type in the Revolution.[4] During the Hundred Days a restored Napoleon held the Champ de Mai ceremony, during which he swore to uphold the Charter of 1815, at the Champ de Mars.[5]

The Champ de Mars was the site of Expositions Universelles in 1867, 1878, 1889, 1900, and 1937.


The Eiffel tower was built for the Universal Exposition of 1889 ... and it was envisaged that it will be dismantled after , but finally conserved due to many possibilities that it was offering for scientific experiments ( meteorology, wireless ...)
 
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The Eiffel tower was built for the Universal Exposition of 1889 ... and it was envisaged that it will be dismantled after , but finally conserved due to many possibilities that it was offering for scientific experiments ( meteorology, wireless ...)
But, that didn't stop one clever fellow from selling it for scrap. Twice.
 
Or for the season from four years ago. Will I live to see such a procession occur again?:(

The altar boy within was awakened, and I sang Adeste fidelis for the first time in decades.

The first stanza, anyway. :rolleyes:
 
Love it! But apart from verse 1, it wasn't the version I'm familiar with. The history of Adeste Fideles is very obscure and complicated (two close-packed pages of print in the New Oxford Book of Carols) but essentially, the Latin version I've sung (on which the usual English version is based) came from the English College for exiled Catholics at Douai in the mid-18th century (and seems to have been associated with the Jacobites!). The verses they're singing at Notre Dame were written by Abbe de Borderies in the early 19th - they're about the shepherds, and all the faithful, going to visit the stable, so appropriate for that procession up to the crib.
 
Or for the season from four years ago. Will I live to see such a procession occur again?:(
Oh how wonderful. And lovely that even at Notre Dame they sing the David Willcocks descant that we know so,well over there.

But....I should be playing this at my local Midnight Mass in a few days time. If I do, no-one can sing with me as I play it as powerfully as I have tried to every Christmas for the last 40 years. It will not be the same this year., and I will miss it. Sorry for indulging on here
 
Oh how wonderful. And lovely that even at Notre Dame they sing the David Willcocks descant that we know so,well over there.

But....I should be playing this at my local Midnight Mass in a few days time. If I do, no-one can sing with me as I play it as powerfully as I have tried to every Christmas for the last 40 years. It will not be the same this year., and I will miss it. Sorry for indulging on here
Dam covid, I feel for you!
 
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