City of Lighting

"[Paris] earned its nickname [the City of Lights] in the late 18th century, not because of its lights, but because of the intellectual and scientific activity that blossomed here. Before 1981, Paris had not made a co-ordinated effort to light its streets and monuments. When François Jousse came to the task, the approach was to bathe monuments in brilliant light, or not to light them at all, and there had been no new lights installed in Paris for many years."

"After more than 25 years as creator and supervisor of lighting designs in Paris, Mr. Jousse said he is as much a storyteller and historian as he is an engineer. His goal is to bathe buildings in their history and to create designs that are so subtle the people looking at them may not realize the building has been illuminated. Mr. Jousse has the opaque title of chief engineer for doctrine, expertise and technical control for Paris. What that means is he's responsible for lighting 300 of the city's monuments. In the City of Light, he's the man at the switch, and Notre Dame is his most recent project."

"The project has been in the works for 15 years, and was plagued by administrative and financial problems and disagreements between the French government, which owns the cathedral, and the Catholic archdiocese, which uses it. There were arguments between designers, and with the archbishop."

"The design was completed this year and the results are as subtle and stunning as any could have hoped. Spotlights once bathed three of the cathedral's walls and the fourth was left in the dark. Now the spotlights have been replaced with dozens of individual lights that softly highlight specific points on all four facades - each of the three arched doors, the Gallery of Kings, the Virgin and angels with candelabras, the balustrades and the towers with their magnificent gargoyles, all leading gently up toward the heavens."