Former first lady Michelle Obama was on a lavish dinner cruise along the Seine in Paris as the Notre Dame Cathedral caught fire.

Obama, who was in the French capital on Monday as part of her Becoming international book tour, was pictured smiling and mingling with other guests on the dinner cruise as they passed the Eiffel Tower along one of the most famous scenic routes in the world. But the moments were captured as the mood aboard the dinner cruise drastically changed when news of the Notre Dame fire starting being reported on local Parisien outlets.