• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Much Ado About Paris

In case you want to know what it's like to escape to Paris these days

  • Home
  • Paris Blog
  • About this Paris Blog
  • Archive
  • Privacy Policy

New Bells Chime With Modern Pitch At Notre Dame Cathedral

March 25, 2013 by Hugh Nelson 5 Comments

Palm Sunday was to be the first ringing of the new church bells at Notre Dame, and I awoke about 8 am to a magnificent new sound. I hurriedly dressed and went outside to try to capture the music, but the bells quit tolling for me, so to speak. I caught the tail end of a less magnificent ringing later in the morning, which I’ll post as a video below. I made several other tries to get the full effect, but always turned up a day late and a dollar short when I tried to record them. Guess I need to get the schedule. NPR did a story on the bells, a link to which appears below.

New Bells Chime With Modern Pitch At Notre Dame Cathedral : NPR.

Also here’s a link to a Utube video from February playing the old bells.

Filed Under: Sight Seeing

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Dale says

    March 26, 2013 at 3:06 am

    Cool!!! Thank you for sharing!!

    Reply
  2. Ardis Morrow says

    March 28, 2013 at 6:39 pm

    Hey There: You might want to check out the Kitsap Sun front page today 3/28. John Powers from Kitsap Economic Development A.
    and a member of our Rotary and Tim Thompson Port CEO will be comint to the Paris Air Show in June and several others designated
    by Gov. Jay Inslee.

    Reply
  3. Jan Hiatt says

    March 30, 2013 at 2:15 pm

    Listening to the two, I think I prefer the old sound, but since you are there, what do you think? Nice that they changed for the Easter season. Hope the bunny finds you two!

    Reply
    • Hugh Nelson says

      March 30, 2013 at 2:32 pm

      I think the new bells are much nicer and that what you hear is a better recording of the old bells versus my crummy recording of the new ones, with just a few of the 10 bells ringing. Sooner or later I’ll be in the right place to get a better recording, but in the mean time just know that the history is that the old ones were made of cheap metal, that they created harmonics that caused the cathedral’s engineers to worry about the tower falling down, and that most of the time they were not to be used. The chief value of the old bells is sentimental – they were rung the day that Paris became free from Nazi occupation. They will be displayed at some point at a museum somewhere. Easter is alive and well (both as a religious holiday and regarding the easter bunny) here in Paris. The chocolate shops go all out for Easter.

      Reply
  4. Frank Wilson says

    April 14, 2013 at 3:43 pm

    Thank you for this post…..one of the places we just could not visit on our short trip.
    This got me to digital grazing and an hour later I’ve learned a lot about Notre Dames history and the making of the new bells as well as the story of the old.
    Please keep blogging…,,,I’d pay for this stuff 😉
    Frank

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Latest Posts

  • Auvers-sur-Oise and the End of the Road for Vincent Van Gogh
  • Some thoughts from France on Covid Vaccination Progress
  • Technical Difficulties in Paris in 2020
  • Halloween and Terror in Paris – 2020
  • Bloomsday in Paris
  • Bartholdi and his Statue of Liberty
  • “The Third Man” needed help from Peoria
  • Need help with sleep – read Balzac
  • Love in the Time of Coronavirus
  • A Tale of Two Cities – Part 1

Footer

Hugh Nelson and Brenda Prowse

Hugh Nelson and Brenda Prowse on Pont Alexandre III
Hugh Nelson and Brenda Prowse on Pont Alexandre III

Copyright © 2023 · Genesis Sample on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in