Quote of the Day
Ideas are like rabbits.The Resurrection of Notre Dame
This fire/restoration is particularly of interest to me since I'm a born Catholic fourth generation Franco-American (my ancestors emigrated from Quebec). My USAF dad was assigned to Chambley AFB in northeastern France. My bilingual folks rented a house on the outskirts of nearby Mars la Tour, and I often went to the local boulangerie to buy a pan or baguettes for the family (there is nothing like authentic French bread with its crunchy crust and spongey interior, and the smells of a French bakery are heavenly). Dad's assignment was cut short because DeGaulle demanded all American bases closed by 1967. But around Easter while I was in fifth grade, we were going to go to Lourdes (the location of a famous Marian apparition). My folks owned a VW bus/van for our growing family (six kids and my baby sister was born later). So, our our bus broke down near Paris on the way to Lourdes (we never got to Lourdes) . We ended up in Paris before catching a train back home (it blew my mind seeing a 4-year-old drink a beer). We did a day of sightseeing in Paris including the Arc de Triomphe, the Eiffel Tower, and Notre Dame.
NOTE: This video below was an earlier release, as the cathedral work is done and the church is reopening. A new video was just released and will be embedded in an upcoming post.
Ironically, my mother's home parish in eastern Fall River was Notre Dame de Lourdes (see immediately below). I spent parts of fifth and sixth grade at the parish school (the latter while Dad procured family housing at his new SC assignment). The church with its magnificent twin steeples was ironically destroyed by a 1982 fire. Its replacement was a 1-story building. In 2012 it was renamed St. Bernadette (the girl who saw Our Lady at Lourdes) in a parish merger, and it was closed in 2018. My late maternal uncle, who once served as a staff priest at his home parish, had his funeral mass there just before the closing
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