Notre-Dame de Paris unveiled on Friday its “brilliance” regained five years after the devastating fire of April 2019, thanks to a final site visit by Emmanuel Macron who predicted a “shock of hope” after met its “insane challenge” of reopening in five years.
“The shock of the reopening”, planned with great fanfare for the weekend of December 7 and 8, will be “as strong as that of the fire, but it will be a shock of hope”, launched the head of the State after a stroll broadcast live on several French and international channels.
During a speech in the cathedral, he thanked the 2,000 contributors to the “construction of the century”, some 1,300 of whom were present, according to the Elysée, and applauded warmly in return.
“You were the alchemists of the site and you transformed coal into art,” dared the president. “The Notre-Dame blaze was a national wound and you were its remedy through will, through work, through commitment (…) You achieved what we thought impossible,” he said. added, recalling those who had deemed the deadline set for reconstruction “crazy” or “arbitrary”.
With emotion in his voice, he saluted the memory of General Jean-Louis Georgelin, responsible for the restoration who died in 2023.
In a bad position politically, Emmanuel Macron is banking heavily on this meeting, which he has elevated to the rank of “French pride” with the successful Olympic Games last summer.
He must speak again, this time on the square, on December 7. He has also invited a large number of foreign leaders next weekend in the hope of making it a global event, but the list of those present is not yet known, and Pope Francis preferred to go to Corsica a week later rather than in Paris.
– Pierre blonde –
On Friday, he was full of superlatives.
“You have shown the world that nothing resists audacity”, “it is an immense pride for the entire Nation”, he said to the craftsmen of wood, metal and stone, scaffolders and roofers, campanists, gilders, sculptors and even architects. Patrons were also in the spotlight, while the construction project of the century, which cost some 700 million euros, was financed exclusively by donations.
In this “unprecedented project”, “there was a unique spirit of brotherhood”, he further underlined. Before adding, while a new political crisis threatens: “I want it to remain, to continue.”
Very present during all the reopening celebrations, will Emmanuel Macron, whose popularity is at half-mast, benefit from it among public opinion? “The president's advisors hope that he will relaunch with Notre-Dame”, but “he will only derive political capital from it in the long term”, whispers a close friend.
With a route in around ten stations, from the square to the framework, including the nave, the transept crossing and the Saint-Marcel chapel, the visit was designed to show the main achievements of this titanic project. Quite a symbol, the stop at the base of the spire, reconstructed identically to that of Viollet-le-Duc which collapsed on April 15, 2019 on mondovision, raising a wave of global emotion.
“It’s sublime,” exclaimed the head of state upon discovering the reconstructed cathedral. “It is much more hospitable with this blond stone,” cleaned of dirt accumulated over decades.
The stroll was punctuated by presidential comments. “The altar imposes itself but does not overwhelm”, he slips into the nave, “it’s a real forest”, “this tangle is incredible”, he judges under the framework.
“You see the cathedral as you have never seen it”, “five years after the vision of desolation” of the fire, said Philippe Jost, the head of restoration, during the visit. “I remember as if it were yesterday the Pietà which alone emerged” from the debris, replied the president, accompanied by his wife Brigitte Macron and the Archbishop of Paris Laurent Ulrich.
The flames, the causes of which have still not been determined, had notably ravaged the roof and the framework of this masterpiece of Gothic art from the 12th century, which is among the most visited monuments in Europe.
