Notre Dame
Many years ago, when my gardening companion and I were young academics, I had earned some extra money reviewing a General Biology textbook in the fall.
I received about $2000 for the numerous chapters to review, total riches for us at that point in our lives, and we parlayed that into a winter break trip: one week in London and one week in Paris over Christmas.
London was outrageously expensive then; $10 for a dreadful white bread with cheese sandwich is what I remember.
Paris was incredible, though. Cold, certainly, in winter, and as we walked everywhere, we ducked into warm cafés to warm up.
But our splurge was to stay in the Hotel Esmeralda, for $85/night, a LOT for us at the time; our small room had a view of Notre Dame from the far window. Magical. We went to Christmas Eve mass there. Lovely, too.
It's so sad to read and watch the news today about the fire that's destroyed the spire and roof. I hope that as cathedrals in Germany and elsewhere were rebuilt after bombing during WW II, that Notre Dame will be rebuilt, too.
I received about $2000 for the numerous chapters to review, total riches for us at that point in our lives, and we parlayed that into a winter break trip: one week in London and one week in Paris over Christmas.
London was outrageously expensive then; $10 for a dreadful white bread with cheese sandwich is what I remember.
Paris was incredible, though. Cold, certainly, in winter, and as we walked everywhere, we ducked into warm cafés to warm up.
But our splurge was to stay in the Hotel Esmeralda, for $85/night, a LOT for us at the time; our small room had a view of Notre Dame from the far window. Magical. We went to Christmas Eve mass there. Lovely, too.
It's so sad to read and watch the news today about the fire that's destroyed the spire and roof. I hope that as cathedrals in Germany and elsewhere were rebuilt after bombing during WW II, that Notre Dame will be rebuilt, too.
I agree it was so beautiful. We visited in 2000 with 30+ middle school students. Such heartbreaking news. I too hope they rebuild.
ReplyDeleteI think that's the intention according to Macron. I hope so.
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