Actress Salma Hayek was also in the cathedral, alongside her husband Francois-Henri Pinault. Another cinema figure, the actress Carole Bouquet was also present.
A reopening full of symbolism
At 7:10 p.m., the bells of Notre-Dame rang out.
Its doors reopened at 7:21 p.m., after the Archbishop of Paris Laurent Ulrich symbolically struck three blows three times with a crozier, the stick signifying his pastoral mission.
Brigitte and Emmanuel Macron entered the cathedral last, before a film on the renovation work was broadcast.
Firefighters and craftsmen-builders in the spotlight
The guests then offered a long ovation in Notre-Dame de Paris for the firefighters and the builders. Firefighters who saved Notre-Dame from the flames in 2019 and the craftsmen who participated in its reconstruction were applauded for several minutes on Saturday, inside the cathedral.
A huge “THANK YOU” was also projected on the west facade of the cathedral while these 160 firefighters and craftsmen paraded through the bays of Notre-Dame, acclaimed by numerous heads of state and government and personalities.
After this emotional moment, the musician brothers Renaud and Gautier Capuçon performed “La passacaglia” by Handel.
Macron expresses the “gratitude of the French Nation”
French President Emmanuel Macron then spoke before the assembly of some 1,500 guests to express the “gratitude of the French Nation”. “We have rediscovered what great nations can do: achieve the impossible,” he then added. “We have chosen the start, the will, the course of hope (…). And to make this possible, an unprecedented fraternity. (…) We will have to keep this lesson of fragility like a treasure, “humility and will, and never forget how much everyone counts and how the grandeur of this cathedral is inseparable from the work of everyone”, concluded Emmanuel Macron.
Pope Francis hopes for “a prophetic sign of the renewal of the Church in France”
Absent from this ceremony, Pope Francis nevertheless participated in his own way by offering a message to the Archbishop of Paris Laurent Ulrich for the reopening of the cathedral, in which he hopes for “a prophetic sign of the renewal of the Church in France”. He also pleads for welcoming visitors “free” to Notre-Dame.
After reading this message, the great organ of Notre-Dame de Paris sounded for the first time since the fire of 2019. This 13 meter high and three centuries old instrument had not been directly affected by the flames but its approximately 8,000 pipes, clogged with lead dust, had to be dismantled and cleaned. For several months, craftsmen have been tuning and reharmonizing it.
At the end of the republican and liturgical ceremonies, a dinner will be offered at the Elysée and a concert will be broadcast on French television, with the American musician Pharrell Williams and the French actress Marion Cotillard.
The Editorial Team, with Agencies.
