There are key handovers that are nicer than others. More moving, more grandiose. And that of Notre-Dame de Paris is at the very top of the ranking. It was this Friday morning that Emmanuel Macron made the last site visit to the cathedral before its reopening to the public next weekend. In a route of around ten stations, from the square to the framework via the nave, the crossing of the transept or even the Saint-Marcel chapel, this visit has been designed to show the main renovation achievements.
Five years after the devastating fire which endangered this mythical monument of the capital, here is Notre-Dame which shines brightly after having experienced the hell of flames. The end of a titanic work for the thousands of builders who brought it back to life. There were 1,300 of them this Friday, craftsmen in wood, metal and stone, scaffolders and roofers, campanists, gilders, sculptors and even architects, to surround the Head of State to see their work accomplished.
This “project of the century” will have cost around 700 million euros, financed exclusively by donations.
“It’s sublime,” exclaimed Emmanuel Macron, here with his wife Brigitte Macron, upon discovering the reconstructed cathedral in all its whiteness and length.
The altar designed by Guillaume Bardet sits in the choir of the cathedral, in the middle of a skylight, alongside the statue of the Virgin of the Pillar, miraculously destroyed in the 2019 fire.
More than 2,000 oaks were needed to rebuild the frame and spire of Notre-Dame.
At the intersection of the nave and the transept, the president exclaimed “it’s a forest”. A forest of white stone that seems to reach up to the sky.
For the public, it will be necessary to wait until next weekend, December 7 and 8, to return to the cathedral floor.
Another work by designer Guillaume Bardet, the imposing baptistery.
The view promised to be striking, it is: the blond stone, cleaned, makes
shine at Notre-Dame de Paris.
A fire-fighting system was installed on the frame. The flames, the causes of which have still not been determined, had ravaged the roof and the frame of this masterpiece of Gothic art from the 12th century.
This spectacular visit was broadcast live on several French and international channels, a device worthy of the shock caused by the fire five years ago.
