AFP |
Quasimodo Cafe: Victor Hugo’s immortal hero
Days after the catastrophic fire at Paris’s Notre-Dame, around 30 business owners on Thursday gathered at a cafe in the shadow of the burned cathedral. The owners of restaurants and souvenir stores, flower stalls and gourmet food markets in an area known to residents simply as the “village”, they have all been forced to close since Monday’s devastating fire at the UNESCO World Heritage landmark.
Few at the gathering Thursday morning in the Quasimodo cafe — named after the hunchback in Victor Hugo’s celebrated novel set at the cathedral — seemed optimistic about the chances of re-opening in the near future. Police are letting only residents and business owners onto the River Seine island known as the Ile de la Cite where the cathedral stands, choking off the tourist traffic that is their lifeblood.
Le Jeune said he would meet soon with the tourism chief in Mayor Anne Hidalgo’s cabinet, to push for a freeze on social charges like payroll taxes and VAT for the affected businesses.
No tourists any more?
“We usually have lots of tourists, more than 500 a day, but now there’s nobody,” said Virginie Aranda, who has a stall at the flower market on the Ile de la Cite. “We haven’t even been able to come and water our plants.” She and others at the meeting say the extended security perimeter set up while inspections are carried out at Notre-Dame could cost them dearly.
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“We’ve already had a tough winter because of the “yellow vests, and now we have this,” said Betty Toullier, another flower vendor, referring to the protests that have shaken central Paris since November. “We’re at risk of losing everything,” said Toullier, who has held a stand at the flower market since 1971.
But Patrice Le Jeune, president of the Notre-Dame business alliance, said that based on his meetings with city officials, the island’s picturesque streets could remain closed for weeks, maybe months. “They’re not going to take any risks,” he tells the group. Aides to Ariel Weil, the mayor of the Fourth Arrondissement, which includes Notre-Dame, said he was not immediately available for comment.
Days after the catastrophic fire at Paris’s Notre-Dame, around 30 business owners on Thursday gathered at a cafe in the shadow of the burned cathedral.
Yes Church! but there is a village around it too..
For many Parisians, the winding streets in the shadow of Notre-Dame are full of nothing but cheap tourist stands and overpriced restaurants claiming to be among the oldest in the city. It’s an image that riles many residents and business owners, some of whom have lived and worked on the Ile de la Cite for decades.
“People forget that there’s a church, but there’s also a village that surrounds it. The cathedral is our church, our children were baptised there,” said one mother, asking not to be identified by name. “It’s a village,” agreed Michel Mathieu, whose grandmother opened a store on the Rue d’Arcole in 1921.
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That store is still open, offering the souvenirs you won’t find from the roving trinket sellers, as is another right down the street owned by his brother. And another by Mathieu’s daughter. Like other businesses, they are hoping insurance policies will cover the lost revenue and merchandise — the dead flowers, the food going bad in restaurant refrigerators.
She and others at the meeting say the extended security perimeter set up while inspections are carried out at Notre-Dame could cost them dearly.
But so far officials have not declared the site a disaster zone, meaning insurance won’t kick in, and shop owners can’t file for state aid for the forced unemployment of their workers. “There are jobs at stake,” said Esther Butel, who runs a restaurant with three employees on the Quai des Fleurs.
“I opened today but this morning all I sold was one coffee. I’m not going to make it with one client paying 2.50 euros,” she told AFP. Le Jeune said he would meet soon with the tourism chief in Mayor Anne Hidalgo’s cabinet, to push for a freeze on social charges like payroll taxes and VAT for the affected businesses.
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But such help, if it comes, might be too late for some. “We opened just four weeks ago,” said Francois Monville, who chose the Notre-Dame neighbourhood for his food shop upon returning to France with his wife after 15 years abroad.
“The idea was to create something for visitors, but for Parisians as well, to reconcile tourists and locals,” he said. But with rent, wages and loan payments, “we can’t hold out like this for long.”
© Agence France-Presse
News Desk Adds:
Church of Notre Dame has been immortalized by the work of French novelist, Victor Hugo. Hugo’s 19th century novel, “Hunchback of Notre-Dame” wanted to impress upon French authorities that medieval art needs to be preserved as it exists without modernity. Story was set around the church in the last decade of 15th century. However more than the church it was remembered for the love between characters, Esmeralda and Quasimodo – who took refuge into the church and later turn into dust when an attempt was made to separate their embraced bodies. Several films and countless theatrical works adapted Hugo’s novel starting from the silent movies like “Esmeralda, 1905” and “The Hunchback of Notre Dame, 1911” and later major  projects like the 1956 French film, in which Anthony Quinn starred as Quasimodo and Gina Lollobrigida as Esmeralda. In 1996, Disney animated film, American actress Demi Moore played as Esmeralda.Â
Now as French authorities set out to reconstruct the church of Notre Dame (in French, our Lady of Paris) their challenge will be to preserve the spirit of Victor Hugo, who had argued against modern changes into medieval architecture.