Greyduster
There’s no need to ask our French friends to fix it. We have wonderful craftsmen and structural engineers in this country more than equal to the task, as evidenced by the restorations carried out on both York Minster and Windsor Castle, both of which suffered catastrophic fires.
What a glory Notre Dame is. DD was in there two days before the fire. She wept buckets when it happened.
In 1986 the King's Apartments at Hampton Court Palace were damaged by fire.
I was privileged to work (on a temporary basis) for the team that were put together to find the craftsmen, upholsterers, carpenters, etc, needed to restore the apartments to their original 17th century state.
An unoccupied grace-and-favour apartment in the grounds of the Palace was used as an office for this task. My job was to simply type-up all the letters to the various craftsmen and engineers - and they most certainly do - or did - exist.
Interestingly, it was discovered that one of the ceilings contained hundreds and thousands of shells, which no-one knew about until the fire - it was assumed they were used for either sound-proofing or heat conservation. The shells were sent off for identification as to their origins, but I wasn't engaged long enough to find out where they came from.
Once the letters had all been sent out and the replies received, that was the end of my booking as a 'temp' shorthand typist for the project.
... it was to date the most interesting temp-placement I'd ever had.
