Speaker 1: Welcome to the Bloomberg Surveillance Podcast. I'm Tom Keane Jaily.
Speaker 1: We bring you insight from the best in economics, finance, investment,
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Speaker 1: mood in Paris this morning, after what we witnessed yesterday
Speaker 1: simply somber in the aftermath of the great fire that
Speaker 1: ripped through the Cathedral of Notre Dame. The iconic structure
Speaker 1: took more than two hundred years to build. In just
Speaker 1: a few hours, that roof from back to medieval times
Speaker 1: it is gone, of course, the history extraordinary, from the
Speaker 1: liberation of Paris of the Nazis in to the modern
Speaker 1: day as well. French authorities they assess the damage and
Speaker 1: craft plans to rebuild the monument. Here is our Bob Moon.
Speaker 1: If there was any good news to report. As firefighters
Speaker 1: finally got control of the flames late into the night,
Speaker 1: it was word that they were able to save the
Speaker 1: two rectangular bell towers at the front of the twelfth
Speaker 1: century building, Although it will undoubtedly be years before those
Speaker 1: bells are heard again. It was considered the gem of
Speaker 1: French Gothic architecture, painstakingly constructed by hand. Its cornerstone laid
Speaker 1: in eleven sixty three, and in the more than eight
Speaker 1: hundred fifty years since it had survived numerous challenges, ransacked, desecrated,
Speaker 1: and when it fell into serious disrepair, nearly the victim
Speaker 1: of calls to tear it down. It came through two
Speaker 1: World wars and through the will of the people, Notre
Speaker 1: Dame Cathedral has always managed to rise again. Addressing his
Speaker 1: shocked nation last night, President Emmanuel mccron declared, as heard
Speaker 1: through a trans later, we will rebuild this cathedral the
Speaker 1: place we have it is the epicenter of our life.
Speaker 1: That was no overstatement. For centuries, all streets in Paris,
Speaker 1: all roads in France for that matter, led there. But
Speaker 1: during the French Revolution it was viewed as a symbol
Speaker 1: of oppression and fell victim to numerous acts of vandalism.
Speaker 1: People took swipes at it with axes and hammers, beheading
Speaker 1: many statues. It was there that Napoleon chose to be
Speaker 1: crowned emperor in eighteen o four, but by then the
Speaker 1: long neglected building on an island in the middle of
Speaker 1: the river Sende was plagued by a lead roof full
Speaker 1: of leaks. An architect, determined to say the dilapidated building,
Speaker 1: enlisted the help of a friend, writer Victor Hugo. His
Speaker 1: resulting novel, Notre Dame de Paris or Our Lady of Paris,
Speaker 1: was later republished in English as The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
Speaker 1: The book helps spark a movement for its restoration thanks
Speaker 1: to his raptures to cryptions of the architectural treasure has
Speaker 1: reflected in the nineteen thirty nine movie version of his
Speaker 1: classic story. In every city they stand cathedrals right this one,
Speaker 1: triumphal monuments of the past. They tower over the homes,
Speaker 1: about people like mighty guardians, keeping alive the invincible faith
Speaker 1: of the Christian. Every art, every column, every statue is
Speaker 1: a carved leaf of our history, a book in stone,
Speaker 1: glorifying the spirit of Frens. Hugo himself summed up its
Speaker 1: beauty with just three words, symphony in Stone. He helped
Speaker 1: make it one of the most popular tourist destinations in
Speaker 1: the world, with more visitors even than the Eiffel Tower.
Speaker 1: As Bloomberg News Paris reporter Greg Vescuzzi noted, the most
Speaker 1: visited monuments in Paris. It's about you know, fifty people
Speaker 1: a day can visit it. It's a terrible cultural loss.
Speaker 1: Perhaps it was the splendorous architecture that drew so many,
Speaker 1: or the trove of fine art and religious relics inside,
Speaker 1: among them the crown of Thorns, believed by Catholics to
Speaker 1: have been worn by Jesus Christ himself before his crucifixion.
Speaker 1: The Mayor of Paris had in a tweet that it
Speaker 1: and other relics had been saved, something in which New
Speaker 1: York Cardinal Timothy Dolan found special significance to see that
Speaker 1: reduced to ashes. Myle my, I remember our song from
Speaker 1: the ashes, we rise up. We want to rise up
Speaker 1: with Jesus at Easter, and I believe that there will
Speaker 1: be surrising from this dying. Much of the building's attraction,
Speaker 1: no doubt, was fascination with the heart tugging subject of
Speaker 1: Hugo's fictional story, shunned for his deformed appearance and death
Speaker 1: from his years of ringing the cathedral's bells. Kasimodo, here
Speaker 1: she made me dead. I can hear I've been lately.
Speaker 1: The ringing had been limited to a single bell, and
Speaker 1: only on special occasions because it more than thirteen tons,
Speaker 1: that was concerned it could shake the tower more than
Speaker 1: it could withstand. A six point eight million dollar renovation
Speaker 1: project had been underway for the past couple of years,
Speaker 1: and much speculation has focused on that as a possible
Speaker 1: cause of the fire. Now, in many ways, they will
Speaker 1: be starting again from the ground up. Restoration expert Copoli
Speaker 1: Crouche is an associate dean at Indiana's University of Notre
Speaker 1: Dame and says it will take years to even start rebuilding.
Speaker 1: There has to be a complete understanding of the construction
Speaker 1: reconstruction of this building, which may take at least a
Speaker 1: period of five years. But again, the will of the
Speaker 1: people seems clear. People who see their lives reflected in
Speaker 1: a building. Journalism students Celia Heddeberg notes, they are drawn
Speaker 1: to it still. People have been standing here for hours
Speaker 1: now taking pictures. Earlier um a group of Catholic people
Speaker 1: gathered and started singing different songs. In passing. People are
Speaker 1: making half hearted jokes about how silly it is to
Speaker 1: be crying for a building, But to be honest, that's
Speaker 1: the case for a lot of people here. That's the
Speaker 1: case for so many people around the world. I'm Bob
Speaker 1: Moon Bloomberg Radio, BA Moon, thank you so much. Futures
Speaker 1: up ten, Features up one fifty six. My most extraordinary
Speaker 1: sight today of life going on in Paris was Anne
Speaker 1: Marie Hordern in Paris and behind her on Send and
Speaker 1: Marie was one of those tour boats going by like
Speaker 1: just another day. What is the scene now in Paris
Speaker 1: at about three pm. It's a very good point to
Speaker 1: because just fifteen minutes ago others wore it came by
Speaker 1: and they were students and they were all waving to
Speaker 1: the International press on the bridge to looking on the
Speaker 1: east side of northre Dame. It is a mixed feeling
Speaker 1: in the sense that it is another day in Paris.
Speaker 1: People are back at work, they're outside cafes. But I
Speaker 1: have spoken to some and they have been you know,
Speaker 1: they know exactly where they were less night, telling me
Speaker 1: they couldn't get to their car because they worked too
Speaker 1: close to northre Dame. They saw the smoke. They've never
Speaker 1: seen anything like this. Um and uh. And so many
Speaker 1: people in Paris are saying it was almost like a
Speaker 1: death in the family. It was interesting there. We just
Speaker 1: heard someone say, why why are we crying where you're
Speaker 1: upset this is and no one died. But this isn't
Speaker 1: a this isn't a humans um But that's how they
Speaker 1: are treating this fire here at Norredame in Paris, almost
Speaker 1: like a death in a family. And Marie, we have
Speaker 1: no idea of the cost to rebuild this, and of
Speaker 1: course Mr mccry has said they will take the medieval
Speaker 1: timbers and redo it again. But already I would guess
Speaker 1: we approach one billion euros at least eight hundred million
Speaker 1: euros from the Great and Worthy of France's who is
Speaker 1: powning up one d and two hundred million euros at
Speaker 1: a drop. Yes, we just had news out that Lourel's
Speaker 1: the Bettancourt family they're going to donate two hundred million.
Speaker 1: And then you have these luxury, wealthy families that are
Speaker 1: in charge of the big luxury companies here in Powers.
Speaker 1: But not I know is they're going to donate two
Speaker 1: hundred million. There behind LVMH, you know, the likes of
Speaker 1: Christian Dior and Selene and then there's Friends while Pineau
Speaker 1: who's behind caring they are they run Gucci, they run
Speaker 1: Alexander McQueen. They're donating more more than a hundred million euros,
Speaker 1: so ready we have a lot of money coming in.
Speaker 1: And I spoke to the deputy mayor of this fourth district,
Speaker 1: she's in charge of where northre Dame is, and she
Speaker 1: was saying, how this is what they want to get
Speaker 1: out there to the global world. There's one of the
Speaker 1: reasons why she wanted to speak to Bloomberg. She wanted
Speaker 1: to speak to this audience. And she was saying, the
Speaker 1: Americans helped rebuild her Pai, maybe they can come and
Speaker 1: help save this piece of landmark and they will forever
Speaker 1: be indebted. But it seemed that there are a lot
Speaker 1: of famous French wealthy families for today pledging millions of
Speaker 1: dollars to help rebuild the cathedral and re Horden in purse.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much. Thanks for listening to the Bloomberg
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Speaker 1: Tom Keene before the podcast. You can always catch us worldwide.
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