A school trip to remember

written from Paris as a text box for the BBC website on the morning after the fire at Notre Dame

The pavements here on the Rive Gauche across the Seine are packed with people shuffling along, stopping to take photos or pose for selfies, staring over at the huge, grey bulk of the cathedral.

Police stop the crowds getting any closer, as firefighters use a tapering crane to inspect the facade by daylight. The shrill whistles of traffic police cut the air as sirens of emergency vehicles pass mournfully through the hum of the traffic. But every so often the birdsong and cooing of doves, and the quiet crunch of gravel underfoot, remind you it’s spring in the City of Light.

In the little square the charred odour in the air is unmistakable, mingling with the happy scent of food from the cafés.

A group of excited Dutch 14-year-olds has come back to see the ruin after the drama of the blaze they witnessed last night, on their first trip to Paris. Eiffel Tower, Louvre, Luxembourg Gardens, Euro Disney, they have a packed agenda of Easter holiday fun but they are solemn and respectful when they talk about the disaster. It’s a sad moment for Dutch people too, they say. Everyone knows Notre Dame.