A few drops of holy water on rows of seats: the new chairs of Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral, made by a cabinetmaker from Landes, received the blessing on Monday from the bishop of the diocese of Aire-et-Dax, on the eve of their departure for the capital.
In the workshops, in Hagetmau, of the Bastiat Sièges company, in front of 80 guests scattered between the rolls of fabric and the prototype of the future prie-dieu of Notre-Dame, Mgr Nicolas Souchu, dressed in his alb, blessed a small part of the 1,500 chairs which will join, from Tuesday, the renovated nave of the cathedral, rebuilt after the fire of April 2019.
The prelate proposed this “uncommon” blessing last spring.
All the liturgical objects in the cathedral will be blessed “but the chairs probably would not have been”, explains the Landes bishop to AFP, attached to the symbol. “It’s also a way of honoring those who made them,” he smiles.
The SME Bastiat Sièges, founded in 1964, was chosen to manufacture “limited and exclusive edition” seats intended to furnish the masterpiece of Gothic art from the 12th century, which is among the most visited monuments in Europe .
An order which amounts to “hundreds of thousands of euros”, unexpected for Bastiat Sièges and its annual turnover of 1.4 million euros.
The company is located on 4,000 m2 on the outskirts of the town once considered the “chair capital”. From carpenter to seamstress, it employs 17 highly qualified employees.
– Clean lines –
Its leader Alain Bastiat welcomed, in an emotional voice, an “extraordinary adventure and 100% Landes”, apart from the oak which comes from the forests of Sologne.
The family company was also responsible for the design of the prie-Dieu and the benches intended for the annex chapels of the cathedral, which will be delivered in February, explains Sylvain Bastiat, sales director.
Maïté Lausaman, 71 years old, and Véronique Devineau, 61 years old, members of the choir of the Saint-Girons-de-Chalosse parish, express the “pride and honor” that these chairs are made in the Landes. “It’s a little piece of our parish that goes to Notre-Dame,” smiles Véronique.
The chair, in light solid oak with clean lines, and low to allow the faithful to pray with their elbows on the back, is designed by a Breton designer, Iona Vautrin.
The seat, slightly hollowed out and tilted towards the rear, offers better comfort than the old benches reduced to ashes. The stackable chairs can also be connected to each other by a brass fastener.
The model was chosen by the Archbishop of Paris, Mgr Laurent Ulrich, as part of a call for tenders launched by the Revoir Notre-Dame de Paris association, pilot of the renovation project.
On November 15, the statue of the Virgin and Child, known as the “Virgin of the Pillar”, returned to its place in the Parisian cathedral, the reopening of which is scheduled for December 7 and 8.
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