When I saw the flames engulf the Notre Dame Cathedral on Monday, I wanted to go and help the firefighters, even though I was here in Tel Aviv.
I could not believe what was unfolding.
Paris has always been a big part of me, from the stories my mom told me as a kid, and later when it became my home. There are not enough stars in the sky to count the number of times in which my mother read me Victor Hugo's "The Hunchback of Notre-Dame" as a child before going to bed. And then on Monday Quasimodo's home went ablaze.
When I lived in Paris, I would walk past it almost every day. I would go to the area practically every day to grab a bite with my pal Arnaud.
April 15, 2019, will live forever as the day that Notre Dame went up in flames. All other events that happened this week will pale in comparison and no one will remember them 500 years from now.
My family and I visited the cathedral countless times. When I studied at the Sorbonne between 1988 and 1992, I would go to the cathedral with friends just to clear my mind. We would often cross over to Île Saint-Louis for ice cream at Berthillon.
Paris has many landmarks, but Notre Dame is (was) the most beautiful, the supermodel of Paris, befitting the meaning of its name: "Our Lady." The cathedral has so many stories to tell.
A week ago in Paris, I saw the famous restaurant Fouquet's without a single customer because yellow-vest protesters ransacked the place several weeks ago.
I thought things could not go more wrong, but they did. My pity goes out to Paris and its people.
When I was a reporter in Paris, the Eiffel Tower caught fire too. I thought we would never see such things again, that our generation was not going to see more landmarks get destroyed, but I was wrong.
The Eiffel Tower may have been saved, but the cathedral will forever be bruised.
When I was a kid, I was always scared of walking near the famous stone gargoyles on the cathedral.
Now, for the first time in my life, I care for them and want them to survive for another 900 years at least. Who would have thought that I would one day pray for the safety of the haunting Gothic figures?
The cathedral survived the French Revolution, the Paris Commune, and even the Nazis.
After World War II started in 1939, its famous stained glass windows were taken out and kept in storage.
On Monday, no such measure was taken. The lady's luck had run out.
