Five years after the devastating fire of April 2019, the whole world discovered the first images of Notre-Dame de Paris on Friday. The restored interior of the cathedral was revealed for the first time during a final visit to the site by President Emmanuel Macron, broadcast live. The last before a reopening with great fanfare scheduled for December 7.
The Head of State's stroll began Friday morning around 10:30 a.m. on the Notre-Dame square and its just finished limestone paving. The mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, the president of the Île-de-France region, Valérie Pécresse, as well as the architect who designed this square, Bas Smets, welcomed Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron.
“It’s sublime,” exclaimed the French president upon discovering the reconstructed cathedral in all its whiteness and length. “It is much more hospitable with this blond stone”, cleaned of the dirt accumulated over the decades, he added, assuring the speakers that they could “be proud”.
The craftsmen of the site put in the spotlight
In a journey of around ten stages, from the square to the framework, via the nave, the crossing of the transept or even the Saint-Marcel chapel, the visit has been designed to show the main achievements of this titanic site .
At each stop, Emmanuel Macron, accompanied by his wife and the Archbishop of Paris Laurent Ulrich, spoke with some of the people who worked to resurrect Notre-Dame. Among them, the Belgian architect and landscaper Bas Smets, Guillaume Bardet, the designer who created the new liturgical furniture, Jean-Louis Bidet, one of the carpenters, Maud Pouliot and Marie Parant, mural painting restorers, or Pascal Prunet, architect chief of historical monuments.
Before/after
Vaults, columns, wall paintings and even the altar were reviewed. The spire of Viollet-le-Duc, which collapsed from a height of 93 meters, was notably reconstructed identically.
Broadcast around the world, the fire, the causes of which have still not been determined, caused a wave of global emotion. This presidential visit to the cathedral takes place a big week before the reopening on the weekend of December 7 and 8. In a bad position politically, Emmanuel Macron is betting a lot on this meeting, which he elevated to the rank of “French pride” with the successful Olympic Games last summer.
France
