New research suggests the sarcophagus’ occupant, previously known only as “the horseman,” is Joachim du Bellay, a French Renaissance poet who died in 1560. When excavations at Paris’ Notre-Dame Cathedral unearthed a pair of lead coffins hidden beneath the church’s nave in early 2022, archaeologists immediately recognized the sarcophagi’s significance. […]

See photographs of the Church of Notre-Dame d’Uzeste, France, and the tomb of Pope Clement V, as featured in The Avignon Affair. VIEW PHOTOS at https://www.craft.do/s/bfYY51TKztQBys

Straight from the pages of The Avignon Affair—but in real life… In 2019, the Notre Dame Cathedral was engulfed in a catastrophic fire that ultimately damaged and destroyed its upper walls, roof, and spire. Even as it burned, devastated onlookers poured in donations. Thus, it did not take long for […]