For Whom the Bells Toll

Notre Dame cathedral is nearing complete restoration, more than half a decade after God, in His infinite wisdom and mercy, saw fit to burn much of it down. President Macron had wanted the work finished in time for the Paris Games, when the bells might have provided a suitable distraction from his botched electoral gamble; as it turns out, the opening ceremony will not even take place in time to celebrate his appointment of a right-wing prime minister to protect the Fifth Republic from its own left-wing voters. Any plans for pandering to the forthcoming Le Pen administration by stringing up a Gypsy or two are presumably still at an early stage.