the fire of the cathedral, a memory still vivid in the memory of local residents

After five years of work, Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral will reopen its doors this weekend, to the delight of local residents. On April 15, 2019, they watched helplessly as the monument burned. A memory that is still vivid, which deeply marked Denise and her husband Claude, who live a few steps from Notre-Dame.

“It will rebuild itself. We must live with hope,” assured Denise Charensol on April 17, 2019, two days after the fire at Notre-Dame Cathedral. Denise always believed in rebuilding the cathedral, but not after only five years.

At the time, BFM Paris Île-de-France met him. She hoped that “her grandchildren” would be able to admire the reconstructed building. Finally, Denise and her husband Claude will be able to see it with their own eyes.

“It’s very moving. We are very proud to see all these men and women who worked on the reconstruction of the cathedral,” Denise explained last week, speaking to BFM Paris Ile-de-France.

“Religious songs arose”

The local resident remembers this fire as if it were yesterday. At the end of the day of April 15, she was at home and witnessed the disaster. “There is the spire which started by oscillating to the left, then it straightened out and suddenly fell onto the nave,” remembers Denise.

“At that time, around a hundred people were under the Arcole bridge. When the spire fell, we heard howls and in the minutes that followed, religious chants rose up,” recalls she said.

For Claude, Denise’s husband, for five years, his neighborhood simply lost its identity. “I had the feeling of forgetting the cathedral which was disappearing under this scaffolding. There were streets which were closed, traffic was difficult… There was activity within the cathedral construction site, but our neighborhood had become a little dead,” he assures.

The couple is now looking forward to being able to enter the cathedral again.