Emmanuel Macron on a surprise visit this morning, three weeks before reopening

Emmanuel Macron visited Notre-Dame Cathedral this Friday, November 15, which is due to reopen on December 7 after five years of work.

The President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, made a surprise visit off camera this Friday, November 15, to Notre-Dame de Paris, BFMTV has learned, confirming information from Le Figaro.

The work is being completed as the building is due to open on December 7, five years after it closed following a devastating fire. The head of state is scheduled to make a longer visit to the cathedral on November 29 in the company of patrons and companions.

A symbolic day

He finally invited himself into the building this morning for this symbolic day; the diocese marked the return of the statue of the Virgin and Child, saved from the fire and kept since 2019 at the Saint Germain l'Auxerrois church.

The faithful and Parisians will meet at 6 p.m. on the square in front of this church located near the Louvre, in the center of Paris. The torchlight procession will travel along the quays of the Ile de la Cité to Notre-Dame Cathedral.

This sculpture, which dates from the middle of the 14th century, comes from the Saint-Aignan chapel, located in the former canons' cloister, on the Île de la Cité. In 1818, it was transferred to Notre-Dame, and in 1855 it was the architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc who decided to move it to lean against the southeast pillar of the cathedral's transept.