Notre Dame Is Back — and So Is Paris

In 1952, my father was in the U.S. Army, stationed in Germany during the Korean War. He took leave and traveled to Paris with a buddy. One of the photos he brought home shows him standing in front of Notre Dame de Paris — dark cars parked on the cobblestones, the great facade rising behind him, the famous spire visible against the sky.

I made my first trip to Paris in 1988. Notre Dame was one of the first places I went.

On April 15, 2019, I watched the news along with the rest of the world as the cathedral burned. The spire collapsed on live television. It was difficult to watch. Notre Dame had been standing for more than 850 years.

I was in Paris in 2024, but the cathedral was still closed. You could see it, but you could not go in.

Notre Dame reopened in December 2024. I went back in 2025.

What struck me first was the stone. For as long as I had been visiting Notre Dame, the facade had been darkened by centuries of soot, pollution, and weather. Now it looked almost new. The limestone was pale and bright, the details of the carvings sharp. Standing in front of it, I thought of my father's photograph. The same three portals. The same rose window. The same towers. Seventy years apart, and the building had somehow come back looking younger than either of us had ever seen it.

Inside, I have no other way to say it — it was like I had never been there before. The nave was brighter than I ever remembered, the light filling the space in a way that stopped me. I have been inside Notre Dame many times. This was different.

Timed entry tickets are available on the cathedral's website, but the walk-up line moved well when we visited — so don't let that stop you.

My father has since passed, but I still have that photograph, and I have stood in the same spot. Notre Dame has outlasted wars, revolutions, and fire. It will outlast all of us — and that is exactly the point of going.