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Notre-Dame ...

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And two Emperors, both named Napoleon. One very successful - at least for a while - the other, not so successful...at all.
And then there was Charles de Gaulle.:p

I do agree that restoration should be in the original style. The only question is, do they reproduce Violet-le-Duc's Neo-Gothic fantasy spire:
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Or the plainer original:
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Maybe some sort of middle ground would be the best solution.

Well Napoleon III wasn't so unsuccessful, and he left a lasting monument in the street plan of Paris as we know it today. And l he looked good on a coin :)
napoleon-iii-pair-portrait-coins_164_ee00483e34f2412868846a2da0c80ab2.jpgg10972.jpg
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Actually the people who built the castles, churches and the like were highly skilled tradesmen. Masons, carpenters, metalworkers and the like. They belonged to guilds who were very powerful and a nobleman couldn't get work done without them.
The 'Dark Ages' were earlier around 5-600 hundred to about 8-900 ad.

The Dark Ages are much maligned and misunderstood, a couple of centuries of transition between the western Roman empire and the Christian kingdoms which took up its baton. In the Mediterranean things arguably carried on much as before until with the rise of Islamic sea power it ceased to be the Mare Nostrum of former times.
quote-the-cause-of-the-break-with-the-tradition-of-antiquity-was-the-rapid-and-unexpected-henr...jpg
 
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The Dark Ages are much maligned and misunderstood, a couple of centuries of transition between the western Roman empire and the Christian kingdoms which took up its baton. In the Mediterranean things arguably carried on much as before until with the rise of Islamic sea power it ceased to be the Mare Nostrum of former times.
In his (unfinished) masterpiece, 'History of Europe', Pirenne has advocated his famous thesis that not the fall of the Western Roman Empire (476 AD), but the rise of islam, some 150 years later, marks the end of Antiquity. Because the spreading of the Islam in the Middle East has made an end to the political structures there, which had been created in the times of Alexander The Great, and which had still survived in one or other way up to then.
 
Well Napoleon III wasn't so unsuccessful, and he left a lasting monument in the street plan of Paris as we know it today. And l he looked good on a coin :)
Yes, the street pattern of Paris, designed by Hausmann. These 'avenues' were intended as firebreaks, to stop the spreading of revolt, by allowing the army to move in quickly and take position along these Streets. It did however not stop the Paris Commune in 1871.

Napoleon III was a generous funder of Viollet-le-duc's restoration projects, like the Notre Dame's.

Eager to equal his predecessor Napoleon I in military glory, he intervened in the Crimean War and in the Italian's war of independence. In 1870, however he misjudged the strength and tactical doctrine of the Prussian Army, which made hime engage a disastrous war. He was already ill, those times, and illness is often a bad advisor for an authoritarian leader. He was forced to exile in England, where he died shortly after.

Incidentally, on last June 1st, it was 140 years ago that his only son, Napoleon Eugene Bonaparte, who had engaged the British army, was killed in a Zulu ambush in Zululand, present South Africa.
 
Incidentally, on last June 1st, it was 140 years ago that his only son, Napoleon Eugene Bonaparte, who had engaged the British army, was killed in a Zulu ambush in Zululand, present South Africa.

I once read an account of the death of the man who might have been Napoleon IV. When recovered his body bore 18 assegai wounds, all in front. The men who killed him said he fought like a lion.
 
Less than a tenth of the hundreds of millions promised to help rebuild Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris has been donated, the French culture ministry said Friday.

Not a promising start.

I would think such panic is premature, I expect a lot of the money from the larger donations will be handed over as the need for actual cash to pay contractors' invoices comes due.
 
Troubling. There are some parallels with what happened at Grenfell Tower in London, where what seemed a small fire in a kitchen suddenly spread up the sides of the whole building and engulfed it in flames. The fire service plans for dealing with a fire in such a tower block, and the advice given to residents, based on the assumption any fire could and would quickly be contained, proved not just inadequate but disastrously, fatally, wrong.
 
Another sad fire - Maison Pourcel in Dinan, built 1458.
It's probably been totally destroyed.


:doh:I didn't view that !

On the night of June 22-23, a violent fire broke out on the floors of this illustrious half-timbered house in the historic heart of the city, dated 1458.

Two months after the Notre Dame fire, it is a new heritage drama that reminds us how much our historical monuments, as resistant as they seem to be, must be protected. One of the oldest buildings in the city of Dinan, the so-called "Mother Pourcel" House, built in the mid-15th century, is an exceptional example of a half-timbered house, a traditional construction technique emblematic of the period but was used in France until the 19th century. The building, located on the Place des Merciers, owes its name to Alfred and Virginie Pourcel who installed in 1937 the restaurant "Chez la Mère Pourcel", which has since become a real local institution. On the night of June 23, a call from the restaurant manager, awakened by a smoke detector at around 4 a.m., helped mobilize 90 firefighters on the scene, who were still present at the site in the late morning. Unfortunately, the fire spread very quickly, causing the building to collapse partially and debris to fall into the adjacent street. About 20 people had to be evacuated and a firefighter was injured, without seriousness, by a beam. "It is an emblematic building of the city, one of the oldest located in the heart of the historic centre. [...] This is a huge loss for the heritage and an extremely painful moment for the Dinannais," said the mayor of the city, Didier Lechien. An investigation is currently being carried out by the gendarmerie to determine the causes of the accident, as the criminal trail has not yet been identified.
 

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:doh:I didn't view that !

On the night of June 22-23, a violent fire broke out on the floors of this illustrious half-timbered house in the historic heart of the city, dated 1458.

Two months after the Notre Dame fire, it is a new heritage drama that reminds us how much our historical monuments, as resistant as they seem to be, must be protected. One of the oldest buildings in the city of Dinan, the so-called "Mother Pourcel" House, built in the mid-15th century, is an exceptional example of a half-timbered house, a traditional construction technique emblematic of the period but was used in France until the 19th century. The building, located on the Place des Merciers, owes its name to Alfred and Virginie Pourcel who installed in 1937 the restaurant "Chez la Mère Pourcel", which has since become a real local institution. On the night of June 23, a call from the restaurant manager, awakened by a smoke detector at around 4 a.m., helped mobilize 90 firefighters on the scene, who were still present at the site in the late morning. Unfortunately, the fire spread very quickly, causing the building to collapse partially and debris to fall into the adjacent street. About 20 people had to be evacuated and a firefighter was injured, without seriousness, by a beam. "It is an emblematic building of the city, one of the oldest located in the heart of the historic centre. [...] This is a huge loss for the heritage and an extremely painful moment for the Dinannais," said the mayor of the city, Didier Lechien. An investigation is currently being carried out by the gendarmerie to determine the causes of the accident, as the criminal trail has not yet been identified.

It is sad, tragic. But entropy is as inevitable as death and taxes.
 
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