Bill Whittle's reveille for the French is spot on...

Meanwhile, the fight over how to rebuild has begun:


French Conservatives Furious Over Plans To Rebuild Notre Dame With Modern Materials

Conservative French politicians are outraged over President Emmanuel Macron's suggestion that modern materials like steel, titanium and carbon be used in the reconstruction of Notre Dame as the president seeks to fulfill his promise of finishing the project within five years.

Marine Le Pen, leader of the Rassemblement National, the right-wing party formerly known as the National Front, lashed out at her former presidential rival on Twitter. Responding to a tweet by French PM Edouard Philippe about an international architectural competition to replace the 19th-century spire, which collapsed during the fire, Le Pen tweeted #Touchepasnotredame - or hands off Notre Dame.

In his tweet, the PM questioned whether the spire should be made out of the same materials, or whether it should even be rebuilt at all.

According to the FT, Macron's promise to rebuild the cathedral within five years would probably be impossible if builders had to source, season and fit the type of massive oak beams used in the original construction.

Meanwhile, Jordan Bardella, a 23-year-old rising star of the far-right who is leading the RN into the European elections in May, mocked the idea of a contemporary roof for the cathedral, instead demanding an "identical" reconstruction while condemning the prospect of "some awful piece of contemporary art, modern art."



Notre Dame

Bardella told a French television station: "We have to stop the madness now. France’s heritage deserves the utmost respect."

But Le Pen and RN weren't the only ones attacking Macron over his suggestion.

Laurent Wauquiez, leader of the Republicans, the party of former prime minister Nicolas Sarkozy, also demanded that the reconstruction be identical to the original, while Francois-Xavier Bellamy, the head of his party’s list for May’s European Parliament elections, suggested that Macron and his ministers were guilty of arrogance and haste in trying to second-guess experts for the rebuilding of the cathedral.

As the FT pointed out, the controversy echoed the battle over the modernization of the Louvre museum in the 1980s under Francois Mitterrand, when glass pyramids were commissioned for the space between two wings of the museum.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news...ame-modern-materials

Speaking of the Yellow Vests, this outlines the background to their protests pretty well.

quote:

As Rich Lavish Cash on Notre-Dame, Many Ask: What About the Needy?

LIZ ALDERMAN and STEVEN ERLANGER 11 hrs ago

PARIS — The pledges came in quick succession.

François-Henri Pinault, France’s second-richest man, put up an eye-popping 100 million euros to rebuild Notre-Dame, just as firefighters were dousing the last flames at the cathedral early Tuesday morning. Not to be outdone, Bernard Arnault, France’s wealthiest scion and a fierce rival to Mr. Pinault and to his father, François Pinault, upped the ante with a 200-million-euro gift a few hours later.

By Wednesday, the government had welcomed some 850 million euros — more than $960 million — offered in the patriotic name of salvaging the cultural treasure, as money from wealthy French families, French companies and international corporations poured in.

But the spectacle of billionaires trying to one-up one another quickly intensified resentments over inequality that have flared during the Yellow Vest movement, just as President Emmanuel Macron was looking to transform the calamity into a new era of national unity. There were accusations that the wildly rich were trying to wash their reputations during a time of national tragedy.

[...]

The firestorm began when Jean-Jacques Aillagon, a former culture minister and now adviser to Mr. Pinault’s father, went on Twitter after Mr. Pinault announced his gift Tuesday to suggest that corporate contributions to Notre-Dame’s restoration be given a 90 percent tax deduction, rather than the 60 percent that corporations normally get for charitable contributions.

“That’s when the whole thing exploded,” said Pierre Haski, a commentator for France-Inter, the public radio station. “That produced outrage, that this act of generosity turns into fiscal advantage.”

The reaction was so intense that Mr. Aillagon went on the radio Wednesday morning to retract his suggestion. The Pinault family then announced that they would seek no tax deduction at all for the gift.

“It was very revealing about the sensitivity of the whole issue,” Mr. Haski said, coming in the midst of a great national debate about the Yellow Vests and their protests against inequality and fiscal privileges.

In general many are relieved that Notre-Dame still stands, and if there is now a billion euros to reconstruct it, without calling too deeply on an already stretched national budget, that may be enough.

But taxes have been one of the pressing issues in the Yellow Vest movement, and the one that Mr. Macron has had most trouble defusing.

The protests that began last autumn were originally over a gasoline tax, but morphed into a larger collective outcry over declining living standards that many average French people complained were rooted in high taxes, while the upper-middle classes in the big cities, let alone the rich, were doing just fine.

The protesters have lashed out at Mr. Macron for favoring the very rich by eliminating a wealth tax, among other inducements as part of his plan to stimulate the economy.

While he has since announced a series of modest tax cuts to help people struggling to make ends meet, he has refused to reinstate the wealth tax, a symbolic slap in the face of the protesters that redoubled their anger.

Ingrid Levavasseur, a founding leader of the Yellow Vests, said France should “get back to reality.”

“There is growing anger on social media over the inertia of big corporations over social misery while they are proving able to mobilize a crazy amount of dough overnight for Notre-Dame,” she added.

The companies contributing are among the largest in France, and account for tens of thousands of jobs at home and abroad in the luxury, energy and construction industries.

But for many, they are also symbols of an untouchable class of superrich who keep getting richer, thanks to a host of fiscal advantages.

[...]

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news...6xQL?ocid=spartanntp

They are saying now that it may have been a short in the electrical system.

flashguy

I think thats "code" for catholic lightening

quote:

Originally posted by flashguy:
They are saying now that it may have been a short in the electrical system.

flashguy

Yeah, and it may have also been due to a dry fart.

They can't even safely get to where the fire likely started yet, so they are just throwing out guesses.

Foxnews reported an 'electrical short' was the 'most likely cause,' but next paragraph stated the forensics investigators hadn't even set foot in the building yet. . .

They are desperate to convince people this wasn't arson/terrorism. . .

Rebuilding Notre Dame Requires Rebuilding The Culture That Created It

The symbolism of the burning cathedral is unmistakable: the West has officially entered a post-Christian phase in history.

Auguste Meyrat

As far as tourist sites and monuments go, the Notre Dame Cathedral is one of the best places to visit. It is beautiful, big, right at the center of a tourist-friendly city, and—best of all—completely free of charge.

It is a welcome change from Paris’s other famous monument, the Eiffel Tower, which costs a fair amount of money to climb and is located away from the center of town, forcing tourists to make a treacherous walk through parks and streets infested with aggressive peddlers accosting vulnerable tourists with their petitions and tacky souvenirs. By contrast, Notre Dame is safely situated near all the other great attractions of the city: the Louvre, the Luxembourg Gardens, the Musee D’Orsay, the Champs-Elysees, and the River Seine. It is the great centerpiece of the historical theme park that old Paris has become.

This is what French leaders and the majority of people around the world are lamenting. In the fire that struck the great cathedral, they saw the destruction of the ideal tourist site.

Thus, instead of responding with outrage to find the person who set fire to an enormous stone structure that has weathered nine centuries of so many wars and revolutions, officials quickly chalked it up to an accident related to renovation efforts and have already discussed plans for rebuilding. This is just an unfortunate thing that has no meaning or motive behind it—something to be sad, but not angry, about.

A Naive, Superficial Response

Except that these things do have meaning. Only those who see Notre Dame as merely an exquisite monument could respond to it in such a superficial, willfully naïve way. Consider the context of the fire. It happened at the beginning of Holy Week amidst a nationwide crisis of church desecration, to Notre Dame Cathedral, the most famous cathedral in the world and most visited site in Europe. It seems proper to seek a better explanation. It may very well be an accident—and if so, that’s quite an accident—or it may be something more sinister.

Because leadership and the media in France have already adopted an appeasement policy that refuses to acknowledges possible crimes among certain minority groups or possible government incompetence or corruption, it highly unlikely that anyone will learn the truth behind the fires. Already, they have quickly ruled out the possibility that this was not an accident, yet without much evidence. Nevertheless, the symbolism of the burning cathedral and the lame response is unmistakable for those loyal to France or to the Catholic Church: the West has officially entered a post-Christian phase in history.

Whatever can be said about the material progress of the modern secular era, it can also be said that it does not build cathedrals like Notre Dame. Only a truly devout, dynamic, and inspired medieval city like Paris in the 1100s, housing legendary figures like St. Thomas Becket, St. Bernard, and Peter Abelard, could build something so grand and impractical.

For those wondering what great building Paris produces today, they should visit the Pompidou Centre, an inside-out architectural monstrosity that houses modern art monstrosities. For all its many flaws, it is fair to say that there is something familiar about Pompidou that modern man does not feel in Notre Dame, a special kind of vacuity and disorder peculiar to contemporary life.

The images of Notre Dame on fire reminded people of unpleasant truth that the building is simply too beautiful and magnificent for the world today. The world, and France in particular, does not deserve it; Christianity, Catholicism in particular, does not deserve it either.

In the name of progress and mass appeal, France and the Catholic Church have both abandoned their venerable traditions and betrayed the very core of their identities. Nevertheless, they will continue to prop up their old monuments and pretend as if nothing has happened. Whether it turns out to be true or not, it seems fitting that the combustible scaffolding used for renovations was ignited by a careless construction worker paid by the French government. By trying to maintain the beautiful (profitable) illusion, they ended up inadvertently revealing the ugly reality.

Many writers have delivered moving tributes to Notre Dame, and those should not be disparaged. They prove just how powerful and important this church is to the world. But in praising the building, they should praise the forgotten values that created this building, for this will be the only way to truly rebuild it.

Learning to Care for Beauty Again

Catholics need to recover the beauty of Notre Dame, a beauty derived from genuine faith and strong community. They need to quit ruining their sacred spaces with modern art and architecture—an incompatible style that emphasizes function over form and by extension worldly concerns over heavenly ones.

There is nothing Catholic about lifeless, brutal buildings designed to house dehumanized collectives. True Catholic architecture should do the opposite, physically striving for the infinite and expanding the souls of those who worship a living God.

For their part, the French need to recover their history and national pride. They must realize that they are more than their welfare state and their many monuments. They have inherited the greatest cultural patrimony in the world, and they should rise to this occasion as rightful heirs. They should reject the vulgarity and falsehoods of their postmodern philosophers and ditch the inferior trash of popular culture.

This does not mean adopting an ethnocentric xenophobia, but a cultural confidence that lifts outsiders up to their level instead of stooping down to theirs. It is apparent that the French suffer from an acute cultural insecurity that causes them to elect spineless globalists like Emmanuel Macron, seek safety in a crumbling European Union, and enable the existence of unassimilated, crime-infested ghettos.

In other words, society needs to follow the example of Fr. Fournier, a true Catholic and true Frenchman, who risked his life to save the relics of Notre Dame. Just as he saved the heart of church, and just as the firemen to whom he ministers saved the heart of Paris, so too should all people of goodwill save the heart of Christianity and Western culture. And nothing less than Fournier’s kind of heroism will be required.

It is not enough to reflect on the fire and consider the loss in money and morale it may bring. Rather, this is the moment to reflect on what it symbolizes—a post-Christian West and the great neglect of truth, goodness, and beauty. This is not a mere matter of rebuilding a cathedral; it is a matter of rebuilding a world.

https://thefederalist.com/2019...-that-it-represents/

Seeing reports that workers have admitted to smoking on the scaffolding anyway even though it was prohibited.

I'm not shocked one bit given how much I know the French and Germans smoke (A LOT).

One of them reportedly scoffed that "a cigarette can't light a log on fire!" Hey dumbass, a lit cigarette dropped onto an old rag or pile of sawdust CAN then get that log burning.

If they were looking for some fundraising help, Salma is someone I can get behind!

The amount of money that rolled in immediately was amazing but, I suspect, the project will eat up cash like a black hole eats matter and light.

Salma Hayek's Husband Pledges Over $100 Million to Restore Notre Dame

Dang, that's 50 million per tit.

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
Dang, that's 50 million per tit.

You say that like it's not worth it. Know you're a man that's not looking for a gal in need of a donut!

quote:

Originally posted by Georgeair:
If they were looking for some fundraising help, Salma is someone I can get behind!

I see what you did there................

Not surprising that a secular society like the French would have other ideas with this place:

quote:

Notre Dame reborn...as a GREENHOUSE: French architects propose replacing cathedral's damaged roof with glass and filling it with plants

-French architects unveiled the plans to build a giant greenhouse at Notre Dame
-Design would also include an apiary, which would replace the destroyed spire
-The studio says that the concept would be a homage to the importance of nature

Link

Jesus...

That's really awful.

That'd be worse than the stupid glass pyramid at the Louvre.

quote:

-French firm Studio NAB said that it wanted to look at the redesign of Notre Dame as a question of environmental, educational and social integration.
-The studio says that the concept would be a homage to the importance of nature.

What happened to homage to God?

The symbolism of the burning cathedral is unmistakable: the West has officially entered a post-Christian phase in history.

It is apparent that the French suffer from an acute cultural insecurity that causes them to elect spineless globalists like Emmanuel Macron, seek safety in a crumbling European Union, and enable the existence of unassimilated, crime-infested ghettos.

This is the moment to reflect on what it symbolizes — a post-Christian West and the great neglect of truth, goodness, and beauty. This is not a mere matter of rebuilding a cathedral; it is a matter of rebuilding a world.

https://thefederalist.com/2019...-that-it-represents/

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:

quote:

Notre Dame reborn...as a GREENHOUSE: French architects propose replacing cathedral's damaged roof with glass and filling it with plants

-French architects unveiled the plans to build a giant greenhouse at Notre Dame
-Design would also include an apiary, which would replace the destroyed spire
-The studio says that the concept would be a homage to the importance of nature

Link

Since the roof burned, I was waiting for some jackass to propose turning Notre Dame Cathedral into a farmer’s market. Only a thoroughly corrupted, self-important, secular-elite, urban desensitized fool would even dream of turning a 12th century cathedral into a fucking greenhouse “to pay homage to nature.”

Go out into nature, jackass, you don’t need to pay homage to it.

Certainly one of the proposals will include converting ND to a mosque, in homage to their growing Muslim population. Only seems fair, right?

There's no shortage of architects making suggestions. This is Norman Foster's proposal.



I'd not be against using modern (and less fire-prone) materials for the new roof, like rebar instead of the original wooden supports, but I don't think they will go for glass; if Macron wants to make a show of national unity of the reconstruction effort, it's going to piss too many people off. The best you can say about this concept is that it kinda reflects Paris' Belle Epoque architecture like the Grand Palais etc.

Earlier this week, French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle paid tribute to Notre Dame while underway in the Indian Ocean.

That's well done.

Chapeau, sailors.

quote:

Originally posted by BansheeOne:
There's no shortage of architects making suggestions. This is Norman Foster's proposal.



I'd not be against using modern (and less fire-prone) materials for the new roof, like rebar instead of the original wooden supports, but I don't think they will go for glass; if Macron wants to make a show of national unity of the reconstruction effort, it's going to piss too many people off. The best you can say about this concept is that it kinda reflects Paris' Belle Epoque architecture like the Grand Palais etc.

Mr. Foster must not be very familiar with the building or must be planning to make much more drastic changes than are shown here. With the current cathedral configuration (with the roof missing), the only space below that the glass "would allow natural light to illuminate" would be the tops of the ribbed vaults. True, two vaults were damaged and opened to the sky in the fire, but those would have to be repaired to restore the building's structural integrity. With that done, no light more light would make it down into the cathedral than did before the fire.

With the viewing platform shown on the spire, perhaps he means to turn the former roof space above the vaults into a tourist attraction where people can look out of the glass roof structure on the city itself (similar to the greenhouse photo), but that's different than what it's appearing to promise.