The Atlantic

A Motto for a World-Weary Paris

The Notre-Dame fire brought Parisians together, for just a moment, in a way that even the November 13 terrorist attacks could not.
Source: Thomas Samson / AFP / Getty

PARIS—The weather suddenly turned warm here this week. In the sidewalk cafés, they’re now sipping rosé, and on the Île Saint Louis, facing the back of Notre-Dame, the café-sitters burst into applause whenever firefighters pass by in their bulky red uniform. It’s touching, even a bit sentimental, but this is now the mood in Paris, a city that has, once again, been struck by tragedy and, once again, forged on.

She is tempest-tossed, but does not sink. That, it turns out, is the Latin motto of Paris. The city’s mayor, Anne Hidalgo, cited it at an impromptu ceremony, during which she and other officials thanked the firefighters who had rushed to the cathedral, making that helped save its belfry towers, facade, and rose

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