"Waiting 107 years": where does this expression come from?
Waiting 100 years is already a long time... Waiting 107 years seems like an eternity! But then why do we say to wait 107 years? This is what we will see in this article.
- It seems that the construction of one of our favorite historical monuments, has indeed taken 107 years. This French monument at the origin of this expression is located on the Ile de la Cité in Paris, very famous for its gargoyles and its role in the Hunchback of Notre Dame. So you have guessed what monument it is? This French monument that took 107 years to build is our magnificent Notre Dame de Paris Cathedral.
- Indeed, the construction at the initiative of Maurice de Sully would have started in 1 163 and would have been finished in 1 270, that is to say 107 years later. The idea with Notre-Dame was to design a vast and imposing cathedral that could accommodate the growing number of worshippers in the capital. The population of Paris had doubled by the end of the 13th century, which made the number of people attending church very high. All the specialists agree that the building site was long, very long... The laborious construction of the cathedral irritated the Parisians at the time. The expression "to wait 107 years" refers to a period of time that seems extremely long and that irritates us.
