National Post (National Edition)
Macron climbs to roof of cathedral
PARIS • Two years after Notre-Dame was partially destroyed in a huge blaze the French president Thursday climbed to the roof of the Paris cathedral to urge workers to help him hit a tough target for reopening in 2024.
“We're seeing here how, in two years, a huge job has been accomplished,” Emmanuel Macron said as he visited the shell of the 13th-century edifice to inspect progress.
“We are also looking to the three coming years because we will have to meet our targets, and therefore there is a great mobilization of very demanding and rigorous planning,” he told construction workers and architects. Macron is under pressure to live up to a promise he made in the aftermath of the 2019 fire that the reconstruction would be finished in time for the 2024 Paris Olympics.
A year later, he repeated the pledge despite the pandemic halting progress for months and the cleanup operation being complicated by the blaze spreading vast amounts of toxic lead on to Notre Dame and the surrounding area.
Further delays were caused by bad weather and officials now say the cathedral will be ready for worship on April 16, 2024, five years after the blaze, but reconstruction work will have to continue beyond that date.
“The goal is to celebrate a service in 2024. Which does not mean that everything will be finished, far from it,” Jean-Louis Georgelin, a former military general handpicked by Macron to oversee the reconstruction, told French radio.
“We will meet the deadline. We are reaching a critical point in the construction work, the end of the securing phase,” he added.
It is unclear whether worshippers will have a roof over their heads during the planned 2024 service, or whether the cathedral will be ready to host some of the 20 million tourists it welcomed each year before the fire.
Repairs to prevent the building from collapsing are ongoing and the reconstruction work is expected to begin in late 2021. Officials say it could be another 20 years before it is totally finished.
Following the blaze well-wishers from across the world donated 800 million euros to fund the building project, but the restoration team fear the money could dry up soon.
Earlier this year, French forest experts also selected and cut down 1,000 oak trees from 200 French forests to rebuild the spire exactly as it was designed by architect Eugene Viollet-le-Duc in the 19th century.