It’s “French pride!”, rejoices Emmanuel Macron on his X account (formerly Twitter). A new stage was reached on Friday January 12 in the cathedral reconstruction project: “The framework of Notre-Dame is completed!”, adds the President of the Republic.
Applause and cries of joy resonated from the top of the Gothic apse when Léonard Laforest, the youngest of the carpenters from Ateliers Perrault (Maine-et-Loire) attached the bouquet of mimosas to the last peg of the frame. The flowers were placed like a cherry on a 900-piece cake, held together by 4,000 hand-cut dowels. “It’s a small thing but symbolically strong,” greeted Philippe Jost, president of the public establishment in charge of the reconstruction project. “We set aside a branch of the most beautiful tree, we mounted it on the roof,” he explains.
Philippe Jost underlines the “collective state of mind” of the team of carpenters. “We are sad to see them go,” he said. “Thank you, we are proud of what you have done for Notre-Dame,” he adds. Last September, the site manager confirmed that the reopening of the cathedral would take place in December 2024. “We are struck by its brilliance because the cleaning and restoration are almost complete,” he told France Info.
“I think back to the fire, I see what we are experiencing, historically it is still terrible, strong, brilliant moments” says Philippe Villeneuve, the chief architect of historical monuments. “That’s it, it smells like the end, it’s the last piece, the last rafter of the apse,” notes a carpenter on the site in front of the TF1 camera. “For us, it’s something, the end of an extraordinary adventure,” he continues. “Everything is moving at an abnormal speed.” On December 16, 2023, it was the famous rooster who found his place at the top of the spire.
Friday January 12 was therefore a significant day in the enormous Notre-Dame construction site. That same day, the new Minister of Culture, Rachida Dati, said during her first speech that the reopening of the cathedral was one of her priorities: “I know how rich the capital is in cultural offerings, and I will ensure that they are maintained by taking a close interest in its heritage, and in particular in the realization of this formidable challenge launched by the President of the Republic in 2019: the reopening of Notre-Dame de Paris this year.”
