Notre Dame gets love

Americans open their hearts and wallets

Through an avalanche of giving in amounts from $10 to $10 million (about R180 to R180 million), Americans have proved their love for Paris' Notre Dame cathedral, mobilizing to support the rebirth of a monument they hold dear.

"After the French, the Americans have been the biggest donors by far," Michel Picaud, president of the Friends of Notre-Dame de Paris, said ahead of the cathedral's reopening next month.

Founded in 2017, the group saw donations soar two years later, following the devastating fire that tore through the cathedral on 15 April 2019.

To date, the organization, headquartered in the northeastern US state of New Hampshire, has raised a total of $57 million from 45,000 donors, with Americans leading the way.

The top donations included $10 million each from the Starr Foundation, one of the largest American foundations, and the Marie-Josee and Henry Kravis Foundation.

When one adds donations made to other Notre Dame-supporting groups, including New York's French Heritage Society which received a $2 million check from the family of cosmetics icon Estee Lauder - Picaud estimates that Americans have contributed $62 million for the restoration fund.

Built over 600 years before the Eiffel Tower, the cathedral on Paris' Ile de la Cite is "one of the world's great treasures," as former US president Barack Obama, who visited in June 2009 with his wife and daughters, said on then-Twitter.