Sylvain Tesson's declaration of love to the Stone Lady

Let's join the reader under the attic, in the famous Notre-Dame forest. A red velvet desk and chair are positioned in the center of the Théâtre de Poche room. François Marthouret holds leaves in his hands. He will tell us a wonderful love story. It all begins with the encounter between a teenager and a monument. A dizzying cathedral. What better way to crystallize the dreams of a city dweller who loves freedom and summits? In the absence of a mountain in the center of Paris, it is Notre-Dame de Paris that Sylvain Tesson chooses to practice mountaineering. The Gothic miracle of the building « suitable for climbing » explains the one his friends nicknamed “the prince of cats”. « The four pillars of the ribbed crossing joined by the keystone allow the elevation », he continues. And the challenge is such that we must tame the architectural balance of the Lady to reach the top without disturbing it. Notre-Dame rises towards the sky; like the mountain, it looks down on man from above and seems imperturbable.

Sylvain Tesson saw his life turned upside down at the age of 51 in an accident of “stegophilia”, this passion for accessing rooftops and walking there. He falls from the top of the facade of a chalet in Chamonix. Faced with this ordeal, he retreated to Paris and Notre-Dame. It is no longer his climbing ground. No, she becomes his caregiver, his nurse. The writer who is known to be a traveler spent almost four months without moving, bedridden at the Pitié Salpêtrière hospital. When he regains the use of his legs, the question of rehabilitation arises. “ I don't like this word, he said. The prospect of spending hours in a gym demoralizes me. » Then he thinks back to his youthful love: “A stone's throw from my apartment, there is the cathedral. The stone ships are becalmed on the island. I just have to climb to the top of these towers to regain my strength. »

Deserve Notre-Dame again

The man sees these exercises as a way to win back his beauty or at least his peak. To do this, he is redoubling his efforts: “Every morning, I leave my home with small steps, I go down the stairs of the building, walk carefully across the square of Saint-Julien-le-Pauvre (…). I cross the Seine and reach the ticket office at the entrance to the towers. » He is slow, he knows that he is bothering the visitors who follow him up the stairs that lead to the south tower, but he doesn't care. It's a story between her and him. His ultimate goal is to get to the top to deserve Notre Dame again. Each step reminds him that he must not « dispose of one's life lightly”. And it’s physical and mental fitness. She strengthens him and relearns him how to “receive the caress of the sun as a blessing”.

As we read, we enter into the author's intimacy. He describes to us the routine that sets up between him and the Lady. « Every morning, from my apartment, I watch the arrow shoot towards the sky by Viollet-le-Duc. I give him a glance, a greeting. Some things are planted. » This habit is a “safe ally” to use the words of Jean-Pierre Montal, winner of the Prix des Deux Magots 2024.

Then comes the date of April 15, 2029. It is Notre-Dame’s turn to falter. The flames invade the silhouette of the cathedral which was thought to be indestructible. What mistake had we made in taking her for granted? That night, we realize that Notre-Dame occupied a special place in the heart of Paris and in that of Parisians. The people, who no longer looked at her, went to their Queen's bedside. Notre-Dame is wounded by, writes Tesson, « the nightmarish vigor of the flames, of the bestiality of the fire which attacks this flagship monument of Christianity at a time when Christianity is in decline in the world”. But Notre-Dame also burns because it had been neglected. The writer seems to reproach his contemporaries for not having been conservative enough.

For more than five years, France has been trying to reconquer Notre-Dame. Companions, architects, engineers, craftsmen and researchers mobilized to bring the building back to life. It took an accident for Sylvain Tesson to take care of life. It took a fire to take care of this magnificent heritage. The mission of men now is to nourish this love so that it endures. Because to the question of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry in his last letter to General Chambe:“Of what I loved, what will remain? » Sylvain Tesson replies that the spire of Notre-Dame will remain in the sky of Paris.

Journeys to Notre-Dame by Sylvain Tesson
Tuesday to Saturday at 9 p.m., at the Théâtre de Poche-Montparnasse (Paris 6^e). The writer Sylvain Tesson will speak at the end of the readings on November 26, 27, 28, 29, 2024 and December 3, 5, 10, 17, 1 and 19, 2024.