Watching Notre Dame burn: Bridgnorth family see cathedral blaze from top of Eiffel Tower

But for Bridgnorth's Claire Mathias what she would witness is a moment of history as flames engulfed one of the city's historical gems, Notre Dame.

It was 6.50pm local time on Monday night that the fire broke out in the roof of the magnificent medieval Catholic cathedral.

Just hours before the inferno Claire, 50, went to do some sightseeing in the city after running the the Paris Marathon the day before in memory of a baby Fleur-Rose Allen from Bridgnorth who died in 2016 from meningitis.

"We spent the afternoon walking around Paris to see Notre Dame, Le Louvre and The Sacré-Cœur," she said. "It was all totally normal [at Notre Dame]. There were huge queues waiting to go inside. We just walked around the outside.

"We went back to our Airbnb to chill and left there 7pm to go to the Eiffel Tower as we have booked to go up it. We saw on Facebook there was a fire at Notre Dame.

"As we approached the Eiffel Tower we could see a lot of smoke in the distance."

Smoke billowed into the Parisian air and at 7.05pm the unthinkable happened and the great and iconic spire collapsed.

Claire watched through two euro binoculars there for tourists to see the sprawling sites of the city.

"We went to the second level," says Claire. "We could see the fire but it became even clearer when it went dark.

"It was calm. The police on duty were watching videos of the fire and showing each other on their phones. I'm not sure all the tourists knew what was going on."

Claire is a a French and Russian teacher who had taught at Bridgnorth Endowed for over 10 years before moving into private tutoring. She has many friends in Paris and has visited the city and Notre Dame on many occasions.

"It was tragic," she said. "I have visited it literally hundreds of times. The first time in 1979 on my first French exchange when I was 11 years old.

"As I watched I felt very sad indeed – it was unreal."

As Claire and her family headed back to their Airbnb the mood in the city had changed.

"On the metro on the way back there was a sombre mood and you could tell the Parisians knew," she said.

Claire believes it will take some time for the city of Paris to recover from the loss of it's great cathedral.

"It took over 200 years to build and is an incredible place of worship known the world over," she said. "It's one of the first places you think of when you think of Paris and the city are very proud of this monument.

"The whole French nation will be mourning this wonderful monument and wanting it to be restored."

Claire was leaving the city to return home on Tuesday.

"We left our flat at 6am and were relieved to read on Facebook that a lot of Notre Dame had been saved thanks to the 400 plus French firefighters," she said.

"I saw hundreds of firefighters during the marathon on Sunday as they were at various points cheering us on. It's weird to think a day later they would all be fighting that fire."

Claire has run the last three Paris Marathons for different causes and says it won't be the same to not see the famous spire when she takes on another one next year.

"It will be very odd not to see the great spire next year during the marathon," she said. "It's at about mile 15 and I loved seeing it the past three years on the horizon."