No break during this season 2 of confinement.
The work of securing and consolidating Notre-Dame Cathedral is still in full swing during this period.
The remains of the fire, on the vaults, have been completely evacuated.
The removal of the damaged scaffolding should be completed at the end of November.
Inside the cathedral, scaffolding was erected to support the damaged vaults.
They will then be used for future restoration work which could begin next year after the diagnostic studies.
But, already, two chapels are being restored.
Test work which should make it possible to launch future projects.
Getting to one of them, the Saint-Ferdinand chapel, where Marie Parant works, restorer of the murals in Notre-Dame cathedral, is no easy task.
One hour of training against lead contamination.
A step in the cloakroom to put on a safety suit with a respiratory mask that covers a lot more than a simple anti-Covid fabric… The preparation is serious.
Marie Parant and her team must protect themselves very seriously to work at Notre-Dame.
LP / Frédéric Dugit
Equally impressive is his workplace.
The chapel is totally placed in a bubble.
It is therefore under a real protective diving suit with pulsed air, in a constant noise of the blower, that she has been working since September and until the end of December with seven other restaurateurs.
Six months before the fire, Marie Parant had restored the Saint-Germain chapel.
The same working protocol is therefore implemented here in order to draw up very precise specifications which will be used for the restoration of the twenty other chapels of the cathedral, in the months to come.
An anthill in full rescue
Today, the incessant noise of the assembly or the dismantling of new scaffolding of this immense salvage site of the cathedral of Paris has replaced the organ scores which accompanied it during the first act.
There is total cohabitation with the companions, masons, roofers, in this anthill in full rescue.
It is with small touches of pad soaked in water that the cleaning of 19th century paintings is ensured to allow the pigments of red, blue and green to regain their shine.
“We have the impression that we have a little treasure here in the middle of a vast building site”, she assures us.