By Judy Carmack Bross
There is no more spectacular view of the back of Notre Dame Cathedral than from the famous restaurant La Tour d’Argent, and no more memorable night to have seen this miracle bathed in lights than December 6, the night before the long-awaited weekend celebrating the reopening of the great cathedral five years after the tragic fire of April 15, 2019.
Russell Kelley from his balcony overlooking Norte Dame….
Russell Kelley, the illuminative lecturer and historian who divides his time between Paris and Palm Beach, spoke to the Alliance Française de Chicago on November 21 about Notre Dame’s history and restoration just before heading to Paris to be part of the weekend celebration. Kelley, a member of the Board of the Alliance Française Miami Metro who speaks frequently to Alliance audiences around the country, led a previous series on Parisian churches in Chicago and has followed Notre Dame’s restoration from his apartment just across from the Cathedral.
“The Friends of Notre-Dame de Paris, which raised $60 million to restore the cathedral from nearly 50,000 donors in the United States, hosted the dinner at the Tour d’Argent to thank major donors. Of course, guests were served pressed duck and received the traditional numbered certificate identifying their fowl. It was very special that the Archbishop of Paris Laurent Ulrich joined us, along with Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York. Carla Knorowski, a Chicagoan who is a member of the Board of the Friends of Notre-Dame and organized a fundraiser featuring Yo-Yo Ma, Glenn Close, Ken Burns and others, was there also.”
Michel Picaud, Founder and President of the Friends of Notre-Dame de Paris, which concentrates its fundraising efforts on non-French donors, met with Alliance Française leaders in Chicago early in the campaign and spoke to the Alliance about what lay ahead for Notre Dame’s rebirth.
Michel Picaud, President of the Friends of Notre-Dame, just prior to Sunday’s Mass.
At that time Picaud, a former director of international telecommunications companies, told Classic Chicago what he was doing when he heard of the tragic fire on April 15, 2019:
“I had spent the day at Notre-Dame de Paris on this Monday of April 15, 2019, at the beginning of the Holy Week, working on our next actions to push the funding of the restoration with a team of the local France 3 television channel, when I was called back by my colleague André Finot telling me that the Cathedral was on fire.
“I rushed back from home, and I struggled to arrive on the Île de la Cité, where I saw huge columns of fire above the building. My wife had wanted to accompany me to support me in this ordeal, and we spent the night observing from the parvis of Notre-Dame the progress made by the firefighters of Paris, who struggled to extinguish the fire.”
He says the turning point was probably around midnight when the fire was eventually stopped in the wooden belfry of the North Tower. “This fantastic achievement certainly saved the building from a complete destruction.”
Kelley recalled being in Palm Beach when he heard about the fire. “I turned on the TV at 6:30 when the sun was going down and by 7:30 it was dark and all you could see was the fire. I didn’t know if we would ever be able to walk into the Cathedral again.”
Notre Dame on January 3, 2023
We asked Kelley, who will return the Alliance Française de Chicago in early 2025 for a series on “World Monuments in Paris”, to tell us about the reopening weekend, which was surely celebrated all around the world.
“Friday’s weather had been glorious but on Saturday rain and winds caused the Republican or secular part of the program to be moved from the square in front of the cathedral inside the cathedral at the last moment. There had been 1500 seats arranged under a clear plastic structure on the square but it was decided it was just too wet and windy. There were 40 heads of state in attendance, including First Lady Jill Biden and her youngest daughter and President-elect Donald Trump. The most moving part of the ceremony was the presence of 80 firefighters who represented the 650 firemen who battled the blaze, and 80 artisans who represented the more than 2,000 workers who had been involved in the restoration. They received a five-minute standing ovation from the audience. Earlier, on November 29, President Macron held a special meeting in the cathedral with 2,000 workers so that he could thank them for their contributions in person.
Kelley attended the first mass at the restored Notre-Dame on December 8 and described it to us:
“The inaugural mass was led by Archbishop Laurent Ulrich. In attendance were 150 bishops and priests from the 106 parishes of the diocese of Paris, as well as President Macron and members of the government.
“The 8,000 pipe organ which had survived the fire once again filled the cathedral with sound, and the contemporary new liturgical furniture was used for the first time. During the service, the new high altar was consecrated by Archbishop Ulrich and the huge congregation received communion from around 20 priests.
“After Macron first visited the restored cathedral on November 29, many photographs were published of the gleaming interior of Notre-Dame, and all weekend there was nothing else on TV other than Notre Dame. Seeing the interior of the cathedral in person, it was like seeing a brand new Gothic church. Everything had been perfectly restored. But it was the immense size of the cathedral that impressed me the most. The only thing I can think to compare it with is seeing the Grand Canyon for the first time. I had seen many photos of the Grand Canyon, but seeing that enormous gash in the earth in person and being able to look a mile down—no photo could ever capture that.”
We asked Kelley his thoughts in these few days since being surrounded by those enormous pillars, the familiar paintings and carefully restored stained glass windows.
“What Macron said at the Republican ceremony on December 7 about the remarkable achievement of rebuilding Notre Dame in record time is right: When people work together, nothing is impossible.
“There were 250 different companies and 2,000 workers who accomplished this task in only five and a half years. In the 1990s it took 10 years to restore just the western façade of Notre Dame, and this much larger project was done in half the time. The attic, roof and spire were re-built. Inside the cathedral, every inch of stone was cleaned, and every single statue, painting, and stained glass window was restored.
The spire on July 26, 2024.
“To me, it is a testimony to dedication and skill of the artisans with such varied talents. Stonecutters were cutting stone blocks in quarries across France and masons shaping them on site, lumberjacks cut down 2,000 oak trees from 200 forests around France for carpenters to transform into beams, trusses and complex pieces to rebuild the 13th century attic and the 19th century spire, all using medieval tools. The giant organ was dismantled, removed and restored, eight bells were removed, restored and re-installed. Stained glass windows, paintings and statues were restored. These artisans and craftsmen were working side by side at Notre Dame, which never happens. They were all incredibly proud to be part of this historic project.”
January 1, 2024
Mary Ellen Connellan, Executive Director of the Alliance Française de Chicago, told us recently:
“We, at the Alliance Française de Chicago, became friends with Russell and the Alliance Française Miami Metro during the pandemic following an introduction by our dear supporter Solange Brown. What followed were four impeccably curated lecture series by Russell with multiple presenters all of them showcasing the French patrimoine. Another one is in the offing for this January and February.
“Following the conclusion of Russell’s most recent lecture, I told him it was worthy of college credits for the attendees!”
Every Thursday at 12 noon, from January 9 through February 13, the Alliance Française de Chicago will present via Zoom a series curated by Russell Kelley on five iconic Paris sites supported by the World Monuments Fund, which was created in 1965 to restore and preserve sites of exceptional cultural heritage around the world.
For more information about the Alliance Française and its programs, please visit: af-chicago.org
Kelley, who was born in Palm Beach, will be speaking about An Illustrated History of Palm Beach: From the Pioneer Days to the Boom Years of the 1920s at The Society of the Four Arts in Palm Beach, on March 12.
For more information that event, please visit: Fourarts.org.
