Reopening of Notre-Dame: the “construction site of the century” for this Pas-de-Calais marble factory which provided the paving

Alban Hénaux, the director, and Mathias Baurain, the marble mason manager, will follow the ceremony on television. This Saturday, the whole world will see their work, the Marquise marble, all along the nave and transepts. Rinxent Happy Valley Quarries provided the white marble slabs of the checkerboard for the reconstruction project of Notre-Dame de Paris. It is a source of immense pride for the company founded in 1842.

“It’s not nothing!”

“We are participating in the construction site of the century. I did not make the stone with my hands but we cut it. It is magnificent. It is the cathedral of Paris. It is THE monument, the one that sweated the most history with kings, emperors… It's not nothing! You're doing the cathedral, what should you do next? The pyramids of Ramses III or whatever?”smiles Mathias Baurain.

Alban Hénaux shows a sample of the stone. If the architects of the monuments of France chose it, it is because it looks like two drops of water to the original stone, a marble from the Paris basin. “We can see its veining, certain inclusions, and this very typical color. It’s really an identical restoration”he adds.

Millions of people will tread the stone

More than 1000 square meters of stone were thus extracted, cut in the CVH workshop then sent to Paris. The black tiles come from quarries in Belgium. Because of the symbolism, and all the organization around the site, it will remain memorable. We had to act quickly, in 8 months the order was assured. The stones left last May.

“There we went back hundreds of years.”adds Alban Hénaux. Millions and millions of people will trample the stone with their feet, and he is very proud of it. “It’s a product guaranteed to last generations. We’ve seen some photos, it’s great!” Above all, it is an excellent business card for the company which employs around a hundred people. “It’s a bit like winning three stars in the Michelin guide”jokes Mathias Baurain. Both promise to see the final result in a few months, when the excitement linked to the reopening has passed.