No, I will not ramble about the recent 2024 Paris Olympic Games, which were so awesomely organized and executed.

The games reminded us what creativity and nerve can do. Memories were created, and who will ever forget the beach volleyball matches so dramatically contested in the evening in front of the illuminated Eiffel Tower? Ah, volleyball, mon sport favori.

“Allons enfant de la patrie,” and the rest of La Marseillaise. Such a proud country, but sometimes they have a habit of botching things up.

Ah, the gallic chutzpah of having long-distance Olympic swimmers dive into the Seine River, an E. coli-polluted waterway. Mais oui, merde, but such a dramatic sight.

A miracle! I refer to the very miraculous and recent reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral. It has not been restored. Rather, it has been reborn.

I am not a betting man, but my numerous trips to France, and my year living in Strasbourg in 1979, made me confident that the rebuilding of Notre Dame would take decades. I would have bet it would never be “completed.”

Rambling back to our wonderful and unique hometown for a minute. So much to do. The Candlelight Stroll was so well done this year, with hundreds upon hundreds of pre-Christmas locals and visitors festively garbed and gathered around the fairly historic cenotaph in front of our very historic Court House.

Each December the event gets better and this year the organizers remembered the old saying, “Always overspend on sound.” Jeff and his team constructed a very helpful two-foot-high stage for the speakers and had ample amplification.

Shelley McGolddrick and her enthusiastic sidekicks at Tourism NOTL had the ambience-creating candles ready and well-displayed. All in all, a wonderful small-town pre-Christmas evening. Be proud and happy to live here.

Now, remember back to the horrible images on the global satellite feed from the 4th arrondissement of Paris in April 2019, as the wooden spire, 315 feet tall, burned and collapsed into a huge pile of rubble.

Notre Dame Cathedral was constructed between 1163 to 1345. Just think, without huge overhead cranes and elevators.

Within a week of the 2019 fire, French President Emmanuel Macron boldly puffed out his chest and declared that the cathedral would be reopened within five years. Incroyable!

Last weekend, to the credit of everyone involved, 2,500 people attended the opening mass, all kept safe by thousands of security professionals.

Dignitaries from around the world attended, including, for some reason, an orange-haired opportunistic bully from America.

Over 340,000 donors. Craftspeople from around the world, including the lead blacksmith from Canada, were tasked with shaping hundreds of axe heads, with which to hew the large wooden cathedral doors.

Well over one billion dollars in donations from around the globe and a shared unshakable will to get the job done.

And let’s not forget the border-transcending thing that delayed, postponed and cancelled so many worthwhile projects.

Remember Dr. Theresa Tam and Dr. Anthony Fauci? Somehow the Notre Dame Cathedral mega project has been completed despite the COVID-19 pandemic — and the building is more beautiful than ever.

Centuries of grime cleaned off, limestone walls now gleaming and dazzling patterns of colour across the nave.

Archbishop Laurent Ulrich consecrated a new bronze altar, and Macron, obeying France’s strict division of state and church, did not take communion.

For Catholics, the city’s spiritual heart is beating. For the world, a famous landmark is with us again.

Aux armes, citoyens.