Metal rather than stone ... For two months, the Notre-Dame de Paris site, ravaged by the fire of April 15, 2019, has taken a turn.
Outside, "la grande brûlée" got rid of its cumbersome half-charred metal tower, dismantled last November.
Inside, however, an imposing and omnipresent scald forest has grown.
If it sometimes makes the cathedral almost unrecognizable, and impractical, this flowering is the sign of a new spring: slowly but surely, the shift towards the phase of restoration is taking place.
VIDEO.
Review our direct from the Notre-Dame de Paris construction site
To realize this, we must first sacrifice the ritual that has replaced that of the faithful.
Contamination with lead dust obliges, the visit of the site calls for extreme precautions: training on the dangers of this volatile poison, supply of disposable underwear and coveralls, rubber boots and obligation of a shower at the exit.
Here, we know the site is very supervised and we do not joke with the regulations.
“No, gentlemen!
You don't have the boots.
Go get some, ”thunders a security official against two visitors.
Once through the gate, the landscape has changed a lot since December, the date of our last visit.
The nave, entirely covered with scaffolding - a thousand tons of material - no longer offers any perspective.
And it is not finished: the hammer blows resound at a sustained rate to mount other structures and each step makes resonate the steel.
In the air, the smell of burning has disappeared ... "It was not like that two months ago," confirms General Georgelin, president of the public establishment in charge of the conservation and restoration of the site. building.
We installed them because they are essential to be able to inspect the condition of the vaults.
Later, they will be used to clean up the walls.
»Indispensable, no doubt.
To circulate, on the other hand, it is sometimes a sporting route and a puzzle.
An example: to reach two chapels close to each other, you have to make a long detour… from the outside.
General Jean-Louis Georgelin, president of the public establishment responsible for the conservation and restoration of the cathedral, is overseeing the site.
LP / Olivier Corsan
To realize the progress of the site, it is therefore necessary to take a little height, at the top of the north tribune of the nave for example.
Today, most of the attention is focused on the crossing of the transepts, where the collapse of the spire left a gaping hole in the vault, where the charred debris of wood, stones, lead in fusion came crashing down to the ground.
“It is indeed here that there was the most damage, while the rest of the interiors were spared.
The statues of the choir are for example intact.
But the altar set up by Cardinal Lustiger was crushed by falling debris, like part of the floor of the cathedral.
As regards the hole in the vault, which has been completely cleaned, you can see that we are in the process of building a floor which will allow an umbrella to be placed in order to put this part out of water ”, details the boss of the public establishment.
In terms of security, the objective should therefore be met: complete by summer 2021.
Two small bubbles seem spared
In the tumult of the construction site, two small bubbles seem to be partly spared.
Entirely protected by white tarpaulins, the Saint-Ferdinand and Notre-Dame-de-Guadalupe chapels were chosen to be “test”.
In other words, to define the processes to be used, estimate the costs and the time needed to restore them.
They are now completely rehabilitated and shine: the stone has regained its liveliness and the colors of the wall decorations are bursting.
Ultimately, the 22 other chapels of the monument, which look very pale next to them, should undergo the same treatment.
“It is the foreshadowing of catering.
But this is not the only one: there is also the dismantling of the organ that we want to make sound from 2024. And then, we chose the first oaks which will be used for the reconstruction of the spire and the frame.
This will, of course, be the most spectacular operation.
But there will be other projects to be carried out, such as the decontamination of the cathedral, ”enumerates the general.
Inside Notre-Dame, very imposing scalding has grown.
LP / Olivier Corsan
So much for the beginnings of this second phase.
For the rest, the timeline is still far from being determined.
Except for its start: winter 2021, that is to say in more or less 6 months.
For the rest, it will be necessary to wait before the calls for tenders being launched are completed, just like the dossier of diagnostic studies carried out by the chief architect of historic monuments, Philippe Villeneuve.
“We need to come up with rigorous planning.
It is a site necessarily complicated by lead contamination and the health crisis, notes General Georgelin.
So far, we are on schedule.
For me, the secret is to be able to do several things in parallel.
For the moment, I prefer to remain cautious.
Your readers will have to be a little more patient.
"
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However, the general only wants to keep one course: "opening up to worship and visitors in 2024!"
He repeats over and over.
Without speaking now of the month of April of that year, date of the 5th sad anniversary of the fire.
