Rebuilding Notre Dame
Modern Technology Meets Old World Know How in Restoring the Great Cathedral
“It was like the Matrix,” Dr. Jennifer Feltman explained, showing us pictures of the scaffolding that climbed into the heavens inside Notre Dame. She remarked how her university students didn’t get her reference because they had never seen the movie. Laughter migrated from one end of the room to the other. The Matrix will be on Turner Classic Movies soon, I lamented.
Dr. Feltman was one of the few Americans (or only) involved with Notre Dame’s restoration as a member of Chantier scientifique de Notre Dame. She blazed through some of the modern tech (LiDar, unreal engine) and old world knowledge that helped piece together the Cathedral’s restoration along with the discoveries they’re still studying today.
At one point she showed a slide of her first time there after the fire, September 2021, when the city awakened from Covid. She remarked about Christo and his wrapping of the Arc de Triomphe that ushered in this time. Before that installation the Arc had only been covered for the state funeral of Victor Hugo, where 1.5 million people came to grieve his loss.
Hugo’s story of a Hunchback breathed life into the dilapidated Cathedral. Dr. Feltman, a specialist in French Gothic sculpture, recanted the building’s evolution, through various periods and movements.
At one point Gothic was out and Brat summer was in during the Renaissance. That’s why some statues were painted green. Well, that is if CharlieXCX controlled the Matrix.
Feltman is leading a project called Notre Dame in Color to document and show how sculptures may have been painted in the Middle Ages.
With Hugo, I kept thinking maybe the way to save the Astrodome was for it to have its own hunchback to personify the 8th Wonder. It was Hugo’s love of gothic architecture and desire for its preservation from demolition that was his muse.
Otherwise, who knows, maybe Notre Dame would have been a frozen banana stand today. Fortunately, it isn’t
"At that time, for the thought written in stone, there existed a privilege perfectly comparable to our present liberty of the press. It was the liberty of architecture.” - Victor Hugo, The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Thanks to Archaeology Now Houston for hosting the event and their series on Notre Dame.
Continue the Crawl
Seven Years Since the Fire at Notre Dame
I decided to take a walk out to île de la cité to see Notre Dame, the first time I would see it since its reopening.
The Soul of Notre Dame
At 2 PM Eastern on December 7th, you may hear church bells tolling around the US. While no church is an island, they’ll be doing so in a gesture of unity for the cathedral that sits on one, Notre-Dame of Paris.
Paris is Burning, Again
While growing up, my dad told me the side with the flying buttresses was his favorite side.
