I'm just taking a short walk down the St. Miche and then over to one of the most famous sites of Paris. As I promised yesterday, today we're following in the steps of Victor Hugo, famed writer of the "Hunchback of Notre Dame". Have you guessed where I'm going yet? Yep ....you're right. Notre Dame de Paris. Which in French means "Our Lady of Paris".
Who is this lady they are referring to? Mary, the mother of Jesus. Though as beautiful as this is, the story I really want to tell you is the one of a writer who was so in love with a cathedral, that he wrote a book to save it and inspired a generation.
Though Victor Hugo beagan writing "The Hunch Back of Notre Dame" in 1828, it was published three years later in 1831. Very important dates because it was very recent to the ending of the French Revolution. During the French Revolution Notre Dame de Paris was nearly destroyed and was left housing food stores for the people of Paris. At the time of Hugo's writing, the roof of Notre Dame was almost completely caved in, the stain glass had been replaced with normal glass and the masonry was in really great disrepair and all of those statues you see up above the doorway, were completely destroyed.
Do you see all of those kings in a straight line? Those are the 28 kings of Judah.
During the Revolution, the people of Paris thought they were the Kings of France and so they stormed the cathedral yelling "Off with their heads!" And then cut off their heads. Wait...... it gets better.
A school teacher who lived near the cathedral collected all of the heads and buried them in his garden to keep them safe. There they slumbered until 1977, when they were accidently found. They are now on display at the Cluny Museum, one of the best Middle Age museums I've ever seen.
For Victor Hugo, the cathedrals of the middle ages were "books in stone", works to be treasured and cared for.
Victor Hugo had a strong interest in restoring the Cathedral and so he made architecture one of the major themes of his book.
The publication of "The Hunch Back of Notre Dame" made Hugo one of France's most acclaimed and cherished authors. This book and this author are directly responsible for shifting the awareness of the citizens of Paris that their "Lady" was falling down.
One person who was greatly inspired by The Hunchback of Notre Dame was a young architect named Eugene Viollet-le Duc. He was also completely obsessed with Gothic architecture and wanted to make it his life's work to restore this Cathedral. With Victor Hugo's recommendation and money, he was given the job and 26 years later "Our Lady" was restored to her former vision of lovliness.
Remember what Mr. Hugo said? "That the stones of this cathedral were like the pages of a book." And in this case more true than I realized. Keep your eyes on this headless wonder.
By the time I finish tomorrow's blog post he will have won the "Atta Boy" award. I think if I really want to meet Quasimodo I'm going to have to go up. Sounds like Jump into a Book doesn't it? I'm heading to the bell tower. From there I'll introduce you to the real hunchback of Notre Dame. Ok I'm off to climb 400 stairs.......
