“Here we are. » This Friday, November 29, Emmanuel Macron is so excited to have won his bet that he didn’t want to wait. A week before the grandiose ceremony scheduled for December 7 for the reopening of Notre-Dame de Paris, to which a hundred heads of state will be invited, the President of the Republic savors, alone or almost, the fruit of a titanic work carried out by officials, craftsmen, carpenters, master glaziers, vertical access technicians and other experts in historical monuments to restore the architectural jewel devastated by the flames five years earlier.
“How beautiful it is”he marvels, from the square in front of the cathedral, raising his eyes to heaven, as if to give thanks to God, while the cameras burst into the nave of Notre-Dame. With his head uncovered, without a helmet, here he wanders, dazzled, in front of the altar, under the framework, in the chapels, admiring the clean marble and the restored blonde of the building. Appreciating each job, salute the feat accomplished.
Officially, this seventh and last visit to the place of Emmanuel Macron, accompanied by the mayor of the capital, Anne Hidalgo, and the archbishop of Paris, M.gram Laurent Ulrich and Philippe Jost, president of the public institution for the reconstruction of Notre-Dame (he replaced General Jean-Louis Georgelin, who died in 2023), would like to thank the patrons and the approximately 2,000 people who worked day and night, close to or far away, in the structure rebuilt in an identical way respecting the methods of yesteryear.
It is a tribute to generosity and French know-how. Also the end of a cycle before the cathedral is “returned” to the Church. More unofficially, the event, described by the Elysée as a “day of brilliance”It serves as a political platform for a president who needs recognition. The feat of Notre-Dame is also his, maintains the close guard of the Head of State, who insists that it is “the president who gave the impetus”.
From the central hallway of Notre-Dame, before an audience of architects, logisticians, restorers and carpenters proud to reveal to the general public the result of five years of work, Emmanuel Macron remembers the tragedy of 2019, this ” nightmare “, remember. The fire that devastated the building caused international commotion, causing the then Prime Minister, Edouard Philippe, to have an attack of tremors that the interested party confesses in his work. Places that say (JC Lattès Editions, 2023).
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