Making heritage fun and encouraging vocations: this is the objective of the “Rebuilding Notre-Dame de Paris” educational kit, launched by the eponymous establishment, project manager of the cathedral restoration project.
Less than a year before the reopening of the emblematic building, among the most visited in the world before the fire which ravaged it in April 2019, this briefcase aims to offer young people aged 12 to 17 the opportunity to “discover and to embody the different professions present on the site”.
Also read: Notre-Dame de Paris: diving into the “construction site of a lifetime”
The case is primarily intended for teachers and other supervisors and facilitators in order to organize group activity sessions.
Usable simultaneously by 5 to 120 players, “it is distributed free of charge to middle schools, high schools and extracurricular structures with an educational, cultural or social mission or promoting professional integration”, throughout France, specifies the establishment.
A “growing interest of young people”
Reconstruction of a timeline of the history of Notre-Dame de Paris, identification of architectural elements of the building or sorting of debris from the fire and identification of the remains... The case is available in 13 activities to engage in collaboratively or competitively, and in different types of games, suitable for all levels.
The activities are divided into 4 distinct workshops: introduction, securing, restoration of the structure and restoration of the decorations.
They invite us to think about key subjects of renovation such as the rehabilitation of frames, the planning of work to guarantee the reopening scheduled for December 2024 or the choice of techniques used by professionals.
More than five hours of animation
“We designed this case to respond to the growing interest of young people in the Notre-Dame construction site and to encourage vocations towards heritage and artistic professions,” underlines Philippe Jost, president of the public establishment Rebâtir Notre Dame de Paris.
The 13 activities, each lasting 20 to 30 minutes, offer a total of more than five hours of entertainment and are designed to be reusable and replayable endlessly, without any additional material.
Produced in 2,000 copies, the case has been a great success since “half have already been ordered in less than 3 months”, rejoices Rebâtir Notre-Dame de Paris, which has not ruled out producing new ones.
However, it should not be marketed to the general public.