In December 2024, Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, often referred to as the Soul of the City, reopened to the public after a devastating fire had threatened to destroy it five years earlier.  A seemingly impossible target had been set by the French President to rebuild; yet huge sums of donated money and teams of expert restorers ensured the timescale was met. Such is the symbolic power of this cultural icon in the psyche of the French people and indeed people beyond.

In this lecture Carole considers what makes Notre Dame so special. Rather than looking into the fine details of its restoration; she will look instead at its key location, some of its most precious artefacts, and through images consider some of the most significant events to have been staged inside the iconic silhouette.

Along the way, she will introduce a much loved fictional character Quasimodo, Hunchback of Notre Dame , who was responsible for the cathedral’s salvation the first time it faced