Witnessing the Fall of Notre-Dame
It survived eight centuries of plague, war, revolution, and the Nazis. How could it be burning?
PARIS—It was Holy Week and nearing end of day, and the setting sun was as fierce red-orange as the terrible blaze engulfing Notre-Dame—Notre-Dame!—when the spire, spindly and delicate during its long life and now consumed by flames, collapsed. It was near 7:50 p.m. The sky was still light.
I was standing in a hushed, pained throng along
