Some time after six in the evening on April 15, 2019, Rémi Fromont was sitting at the Brasserie Saint-Malo, a lively café in Montparnasse, Paris, when his phone rang. "Notre-Dame is on fire," said a friend on the other end of the line.
Fromont, the chief architect of historic monuments at the French Ministry of Culture, assumed that the call was a joke. But when the caller insisted that he was dead serious, Fromont leapt out of his chair, got on his bike, and pedaled north toward the cathedral.
Fromont is a slim, elegant man of 46 with a cherubic face framed by tight brown curls. Born in Vincennes, outside Paris, he had spent his career renovating sites of national importance, and was intimately familiar with the medieval structure. Notre-Dame was a tinderbox, and if the fire couldn't be controlled, he knew the result would be calamitous.
Fifteen minutes later, Fromont arrived at Notre-Dame de Paris, on the Île de la Cité. Wisps of smoke were rising from the cathedral's lead roof covering. An ominous glow was beginning to envelop the Flèche, the over 300-foot-tall spire added by the French architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc in 1859. But beneath the spire lay a greater risk: the cathedral's medieval roof frame, a roughly 300-foot-long, 30-foot-high assemblage of medieval axe-hewn oak beams so dense and intricate that it had been nicknamed la forêt-the forest.
A colleague who had arrived a few minutes earlier approached Fromont. He, too, knew about ancient wood's combustibility.
This story is from the October 2024 edition of GQ US.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the October 2024 edition of GQ US.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
A Watch Is More Than Just a Pretty Face - As collectors look to make their grail watches stand out, they're turning to unique vintage bracelets and paying thousands on thousands for straps on the secondary market.
For Tommy Cabrerizo, a Miami-based collector, landing one of his dream watches from Richard Mille was just the start of the fun. Soon after, Cabrerizo found himself deep in the wormhole of authorized dealers and secondary market sellers to find the perfect complement to his new timepiece.Because, when it comes to a watch, the bracelets and straps can be just as important, historic, and beautifully designed as the head. It's part of the chase, Cabrerizo says. The same way I was excited to receive the RM 67-02, there's that same buildup leading up to getting the straps-that same high. Cabrerizo is already planning a trip to Geneva, mapping out how he'll come home with a few extra bands. To get any of RM's coveted straps-which come in fabric and rubber across a Crayola factory's worth of colors and sell between $500 and $1,300 at retail-Cabrerizo will need to bring his watch with him to the store or else he'll be turned away. If he's looking for something a little more rarefied, he'll pay a premium. The more desirable RM straps, made for its blue-sapphire tourbillon, sell for $5,000 on the secondary market.
Get Rich Slow - GQ answers all your personal-finance questions
This magazine talks a lot about money. Not explicitly, but implicitly. Clothes. Watches. Art. Travel. You know, the good life. So for once, we wanted to take your money questions head-on. Over these 10 pages, we'll talk about how to save, invest, and-yes-spend the GQ way. Tackling everything from ETFs and Roth IRAs to whether or not being really good at sourcing watches or betting on sports qualifies as "investing." So if you're wondering: Can I make smart money choices without giving up all the cool, stylish, indulgent things I love? The answer is yes. As long as you do it right.
"It's Not About Being Perfect. It's About Being Revolutionary"- Beyoncé Knowles-Carter talks business, legacy, art, and family.
Midway through Cowboy Carter, her eighth and most recent studio album, released this past spring, a voice makes the project's mission statement plain over blaring alarms and a thunderous beat-declaring the concept of genre to be a sense of confinement for those artists whose creativity is too wide-ranging to fit in a neat box. All before Beyoncé herself saunters in comparing herself to Thanos, the Marvel villain known for seeking precious stones of mystical power to claim as his own and assemble into one unified superpower.
The Miraculous Resurrection of Notre-Dame - In 2019, a fire nearly destroyed the crown jewel of France-and the nation set a breakneck five-year deadline to bring it back from the ashes. This is the story of how an army of artisans turned back centuries to restore Notre-Dame by hand, and wound up reviving something even greater than the cathedral itself.
In 2019, a fire nearly destroyed the crown jewel of France-and the nation set a breakneck five-year deadline to bring it back from the ashes. This is the story of how an army of artisans turned back centuries to restore Notre-Dame by hand, and wound up reviving something even greater than the cathedral itself.
Make Your First Electric Car an Old Ford Bronco
In a former naval shipyard outside San Francisco, one start-up is cooking up cars for the next century-just not the kind you think.
Wes Lang's Heroes of Love..
This month, LA-based artist Wes Lang unveils The Black Paintings, a monumental series of works that play like storyboards to a raucous midnight horror movie and a spiritual quest. Here, GQ collaborates with the artist on a fashion story that brings his stylish characters off the canvas.
Can Anyone Catch LAMAR JACKSON?
THERE IS AN awestruck, almost mythical way that folks discuss Lamar Jackson. Teammates, coaches, and fans talk about the Baltimore Ravens' incandescent 27-year-old quarterback like he's the football version of Paul Bunyan, if Bunyan ran the 40-yard dash in 4.3 seconds.
Healthy Protein Can Help Shrink Your Gut - Being a trainer, bodybuilder, and nutrition expert means that companies frequently send me their products and ask for my stamp of approval.
Like my father always said, "What you put inside your body always shows up on the outside." One protein shake that I received, that will remain nameless, was touted as 'the next big shake' but really had a list of gut destroying ingredients. Everywhere I read I saw harmful artificial ingredients, added sugars, synthetic dyes, preservatives and cheap proteins; the kind of proteins that keep you fat no matter how hard you hit the gym, sap your energy and do nothing for your muscles.
THE FUTURE SOUNDS LIKE AT EEZ
The Coachella-slaying, multi-language-singing, genre-obliterating members of Ateez are quickly becoming load-bearing stars of our global pop universe.
Inside the undercover adventures of a full-time fraud sleuth.
HOW TO MAKE A FORTUNE AS A PROFESSIONAL WHISTLE-BLOWER
