The day I visited the restored Notre-Dame, running behind Emmanuel Macron

The President of the Republic visited the post-construction cathedral in preview this Friday, accompanied by officials and followed by the press. Mine clearance dog, smell of fresh paint, pink and blue altar… Our journalist tells the story.

CI've been waiting for this visit to Notre-Dame for five years. And now last night, after dozens of articles, interviews, talks with various communication services, the much-hoped-for accreditation arrived. Eight days before the inaugural high mass, the head of state makes a seventh and final visit. A tour from the owner of the restored cathedral. A stroll that looks like a “spoiler” from the opening ceremony, broadcast live on France Télévisions. This Friday morning, at 8:30 sharp, here I am in front of the metal door of the “construction site of the century”, surrounded by around fifty colleagues from Japan, Italy and Turkey. After seeing our bags sniffed by a demining dog, we enter, heading towards the “life base”, a stack of construction modules where a press room has been improvised.

10:20 a.m. While Emmanuel Macron arrives on the square, the journalists are still parked in their Algeco, following the first presidential steps in the restored nave thanks to a screen and lavalier microphones attached to the delegation's coats. Everyone gives their dazzled appreciation under the brand new vaults: “really clearer” (Rachida Dati, Minister of Culture), “much more hospitable with this blond stone” (Monsignor Laurent Ulrich, Archbishop of Paris), “the feeling of rediscovering the cathedral” (the president). I wonder if I wouldn't have been better off staying in front of my television than being stuck in a construction site bungalow with a cup of lukewarm coffee.

11:45 a.m. The long-awaited moment arrives: the troop of journalists is gathered to attend the speech of the Head of State. One thousand three hundred and sixty-eight companions are present, and the communications officer has the difficult task of bringing in, in ten minutes and calmly, the “green badges” – authorized to enter the place of worship. Even if it means threatening anyone who photographs the interior of the cathedral with an immediate exfiltration – a week ago, American entrepreneur Elon Musk had already denied priority to the Head of State by broadcasting a video on the social network of the restored nave. The red door opens. We finally enter the cathedral, to run around the choir.

Indeed, everything is resplendent, clear, serene. It smells of fresh paint, the light floods the place, the blond stone seems to breathe, we slide on the marble floor, under the chandeliers which, it seems, took advantage of the work to convert to LEDs. Without forgetting to admire, in passing, the enclosure of the choir, cleared of its filth until revealing the wrinkles on the fingers of the apostles. On the other side, the chapels, blackened by half a century of candles and oil heating, reveal the dazzling colors dear to the architect Viollet-le-Duc. Here a starry vault, there an altar in pink and blue. No time to linger, I arrive at the press enclosure where I will wait, behind a rope, until the end of the speech and the applause. End clap for the Notre-Dame construction site, the visit was beautiful but a little brief.