The Bells of Paris

On August 25, 1944, after four years of Nazi occupation, the first French tanks rolled into central Paris. For a breathless moment, the city held still. Then Emmanuel — the great thirteen-ton bell of Notre-Dame — began to ring. Within minutes, every church bell in Paris joined the chorus. Sacré-Coeur on the hill of Montmartre. Saint-Sulpice on the Left Bank.…