“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.
Why will work on Notre-Dame de Paris continue after its reopening?
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.
The bells of Notre-Dame de Paris ring out for the first time since the 2019 fire
