This seems to be the only picture I’ve made of Notre Dame, and it shows not much more than the spire that has now vanished.
The view is from some way off at the back, that is, the east: from the bridge that connects the Ile Saint Louis to the Ile de la Cité on which the cathedral stands. The bridge is my favorite spot in Paris, because it is sometimes closed to traffic, and we saw there a wonderful trick cyclist. What was wonderful was that he kept giving the image of ineptitude, fumbling and falling off and apologizing and trying again and making the crowd feel either contemptuous or sorry for him (rather like the Parisians with the Hunchback), until suddenly he went into his real act, and we realized that he was almost unbelievably clever. A tactic that could be applied in other walks (as it were) of life.
I wish I’d done a sketch of him. This sketch was made (and finished by a rather bastard process) in 2013, and It was also in 2013 that bees came to live in Notre Dame. I hadn’t known there were bees there, till we were told that they have survived. Three hives were installed, high up but not high enough to be in the part of the roof that burned. They will have been just made drowsy by the smoke.
I like it that their keeper is Monsieur Géant – “giant.” Perhaps the little bees gave him that name.