Best worker in France
Man knows the beauty of exceptional monuments: “I have done the cathedral of Rouen, the castle of Versailles or that of Fontainebleau”. The Haussmannian roofs of Paris too. He even made it a specialty. “After years focusing on historical monuments, I set up on my own, says Émile-Armand. I did a lot of condominiums. Maybe too much. I wanted to return to the monuments. » The Le Bras company, which has the Notre-Dame construction site, contacted him. Because the gentleman has a great CV: best worker in France in 2015. “The way people look at your job then changes,” confides the one who has always had the right thing for this profession.
Meeting with Maurice Duvanel
It was at a village festival in Rollot, east of the Somme. He even remembers the date – “June 6, 1999” – like you wouldn't forget a wedding anniversary. That day, the teenager Émile-Armand Benoit married his destiny. “My parents who were restaurateurs at Les Marissons in Saint-Leu (today, Le Lobby, editor’s note) ran a crepe stand. Next to it was Maurice Duvanel, roofer and teacher at the Acheuléen professional high school, a great enthusiast of the cathedral archives. He had a stand where he would tap a piece of lead like the roof of Amiens Cathedral. I knew this was what I wanted to do. »
Professional faith
At 14, goodbye to the general sector and possible family plans for a career as a doctor. Émile-Armand left the Sainte-Famille and joined the high school and classes with Maurice Duvanel to learn roofing. Before the apprentice training center and the work-study program at the Caux roofer. “My father told me: “Be a roofer but not just a roofer”. » He believed in himself and in the roof.
Antoine Caux
France
