PARIS (AP) – Notre Dame Cathedral is unable to host Christmas services for the first time since the French Revolution, because the Paris landmark is too damaged by this year’s fire.
So its rector, choir and congregation are celebrating the holiday in a church next to the Louvre Museum instead.
The April fire consumed the medieval monument’s roof and collapsed its spire, and reconstruction is expected to take several years. The structure is too fragile to let visitors inside. Christmas Eve Mass will be held in the Saint-Germain l’Auxerrois church, once used for French royalty.
