MacGregor: A Notre-Dame lesson – lives change, and buildings must too

Ten years ago, I stood in line for an hour and a half outside the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, nervous that I would never know how to live in a French city.
This was part of what I’d been told people did when they ran off with a Frenchman: They bought used books from stands along the Seine, gazed up from the foot of the Eiffel Tower, ran their hands along the cold stones of ancient buildings (selfies had barely been invented; experiences were still tactile). But I’ll admit that whe