He is currently on vacation. Far from Paris, far from Nantes. But since this Saturday morning and the first alert concerning the fire of the cathedral of Nantes (Loire-Atlantique), Stéphane Bern has his mind turned to "these thousand years of history which are suddenly blown up in smoke". For the animator keen on history, in charge of the Heritage Mission, “the nightmare” - the word comes back in his mouth - starts again, a little more than a year after the fire that ravaged Notre-Dame de Paris.
What was your first reaction this Saturday morning?
STEPHANE BERN. It's dramatic. I have the impression that the nightmare begins again, with the same emotion ... What is even more terrible, it is that it is obviously about an arson with three starts of fire. Anne de Bretagne's stained glass window from 1499 destroyed, paintings destroyed, the great organs destroyed… I have the impression that I have plunged into a nightmare since 7:44 this morning. I say to myself: "But when will we finally realize that heritage must be protected, defended, and must be a great national cause! We can see that the emotion is there.
VIDEO. Fire at Nantes Cathedral: the privileged criminal track
The fact that it was not, according to the first elements of the investigation, an accident reinforces your anger ...
It is unimaginable, monstrous. This raises questions about the society we have become: it means that nothing has any meaning, nothing has any value, nothing any more matters. It is a terrible form of nihilism. It shows that our Republic is in very poor health. This poses the problem of living together. If we tackle places of worship ... (he doesn't finish his sentence) . Marcel Proust, in 1904, said that cathedrals were the only monuments that still had the same vocation as when they were built a millennium ago. It is our history, our identity that we attack here. This is very serious.
The Prime Minister announced his arrival in Nantes very quickly. Was it necessary?
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Yes, you have to send a strong signal. And it's very good that the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, is there too, because, if it is really criminal, it is necessary that all the rigor of the investigation is required and that justice really happening.
The cathedral of Nantes had already been the victim of an accidental fire in 1972. The fact that the frame was rebuilt in concrete could have helped to save it today?
I do not know. I don't think the flames have gone up to the frame. But we have lost irremediable treasures such as the great organs, the stained glass window by Anne de Bretagne. Fortunately, the tomb of François de Bretagne is, I believe, unscathed.
As in charge of the Heritage Mission, you have had no respite lately ...
We wake up in the morning and say to ourselves, "It will never stop. When I see like that a thousand years of history going up in smoke, I have the impression of being with a watering can to put out the heritage fire. But it makes me want to continue the fight even more.
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