… and Notre Dame, which will never be the same. I have thought a lot about it & the good fortune I have had on past trips to France to see this amazing building on multiple occasions. This post is devoted to sharing some recent images of this magnificent structure while it was still intact, with a lot of sadness on my part. I will be heading back there in a couple of days & in some ways dread the idea of going to the Île de la Cité & looking at what is left of this piece of history.
The above image was taken about a year ago from the 25th floor of the Zamansky Tower at Université Pierre et Marie Curie [UPMC], which is now part of Université Sorbonne. Seeing the building from this height really shows off the scale & perspective of this magnificent structure. The image below is taken from the same view, but shows the huge scale of Notre Dame better relative to the surrounding architecture. 
One thinks about all of the environmental challenges this building has experienced over the centuries – the regular flooding of the Seine over the years, for instance. The last big flood was in winter 2018 – here are a couple of images of the extensive flooding on the Seine – quite a remarkable sight. No river traffic possible – no vessel could actually fit under any of the bridges because the water level was so high. Nor could anyone actually get to the boats that were moored on the quays by the river, because the walkways & quays themselves were all under water as well…
It actually took a couple of months before the level of the river looked like anything normal.
Here is a shot a couple of months later.
I have always enjoyed the many architectural features of Notre Dame – features that are often best appreciated from behind the zoom lens of a camera…
Every time I go & look at it I notice something that I have not seen previously.
I share with you one more shot of Notre Dame & its spire on a beautiful summer evening that was spent on a barge on the Seine last summer…
The next pics of Notre Dame you will see on this blog will be in its current state, after the devastating fire…
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