Category: The Avignon Affair

Archaeologists Say They’ve Solved the Mystery of a Lead Coffin Discovered Beneath Notre-Dame

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. Lead, a metal that keeps […]

Scientists to Open 700-Year-Old Notre-Dame Sarcophagus

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 the Cathedral’s rebuild to begin… […]