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Notre-Dame Bell, Emmanuel, Rings for Chirac
Walking along the narrow rue Galand the sound of a muffled bell ringing reverberated against the walls. Sitting at the café, looking at my watch, it was around 11:20 on a Monday morning. My friend guessed it was a church nearby; I guessed Notre-Dame. Couldn't be.... perhaps the towers were damaged. The constant soft ringing was not signalling the quarter, half or full hour. Earlier I had heard on French television the time for the funeral ceremony that would pass from Hôtel des Invalides to Saint-Sulpice. We walked toward Notre-Dame from where the mystery sound originated. Emmanuel, the 300 year old was ringing. The ringing was manually orchestrated. The first…
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Saint-Sulpice, A Tower With A View
For DaVinci Code trackers, your souvenir photo showing the church Saint-Sulpice has a major distraction. If you visited the church after the the book’s publication in 2003, the north tower is shrouded in scaffolding and hidden from view. It is time to return to Paris for a new Kodak moment photo shoot. Completely dismantled stone by stone and put back together again between February 2006 and January 2011, the north tower is completely restored and stable. The tower, which rises 233 feet above the ground, carries the weight of 22 tons for the Evangelist statues, 41 tons for the belfry frame and 17 tons for the five bells. A protective…
