And suddenly, the arrow falls… Sylvain Tesson tells Notre-Dame after the fire

L’fear, it is the unthinkable mixed with the sublime. The images of the blaze are beautiful. Horrific beauty, fusion engraving by Gustave Doré. Every man has a daily encounter with the landscape he inhabits. I live on the banks of the Seine, between the Saint-Julien-le-Pauvre church, where my mother was buried, and the Saint-Séverin church, where Huysmans was baptized. Our Lady is there, very close, queen mother of her brood of churches.

I am staying “under the command of the towers of Notre-Dame” (Péguy in “The Seven Against Paris”).

The presence

Every morning, from home, I looked at the arrow shot into the sky by Viollet-le-Duc. I glanced at him. It was a greeting. Some things are planted. No ! everything does not vary on this Earth and everything is not destined to circulate frenetically…