The towers of Notre-Dame de Paris firmly stood against the fire. They witnessed the battle against the flames on April 15, 2019, that destroyed the framework, the spire and devastated the apse and the nave. If the fire had reached the yokes that hold the massive forged steel bells (the largest, the Emmanuel great bell, weighs just over 13 metric tons) and come loose, the entire structure could have collapsed. That might have meant the end of the cathedral, it was feared.

The narrow staircase makes you think what it must have been like for the firefighters who courageously fought the wind-whipped flames onto the north tower while heavily equipped with water hoes. They won the battle, and the towers were saved. The towers are now the last section to reopen to visitors, on time for the European Heritage Days, following their inauguration by the French president on Friday, September 19.

"Four hundred twenty-four steps!" said an out-of-breath Marie Lavandier, president of the National Monuments Center, leading the way. From the music room – "We call it that even though we don't really know what its role was," she said – the tour takes a spiral staircase carved in stone up to the room of the quatrefoils, named for its four-lobed glass openings on all four sides, leading to the base of the south tower's belfry.

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