PARIS (OSV News): In a historic year for Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, which the French capital and the whole world will see reopen on December 8, milestones will be reported on regularly, but this one made Parisians shed a tear or two: Reconstruction of the roof structure is now complete.
On January 12, in the freezing cold, a traditional bouquet of flowers was placed on top of the wooden structure of the cathedral apse. The last rafter had been placed under the snow, three days earlier.
Notre Dame Cathedral was ravaged by a devastating fire in 2019 that sent its spire crumbling down, and restoration works continue.
This final structural work on the roof had been entrusted to Ateliers Perrault, a French company with roots in Anjou in the Loire Valley famous for its castles, or châteaux, in southwestern France. The company dates back to the 18th century and specialises in the restoration of historic buildings.
One of its experienced carpenters, Julien Mulvet, was in charge of the rooftop project at the cathedral. Accompanied by his young apprentice, 19-year-old Leonard Laforest, he placed the bouquet of yellow mimosas at the top. “This is how it is traditionally done in the carpenters profession,” Mulvet explained. “It is a symbol of passing on knowledge to the youngest generations.”
“The bouquet of carpenters was arranged by the youngest of them: the Notre Dame structure is ready!” French president, Emmanuel Macron, posted on X, formerly Twitter, on January 13. “French pride,” he added.
Carpenters and workers posed for a group picture during the ceremony, and were visibly proud at the end of the reconstruction of the medieval choir framework. The symbolic flower gesture was warmly applauded by the large number of craftsmen who were standing with their white helmets at the foot of the building and enthusiastically congratulated their comrades.
“What moved me the most was that all the craftsmen who took part in this work had come from all over France for this moment,” Mulvet said, “including the small-scale craftspeople who passed on to us the skills that were used in the 12th century by the builders of the cathedral.”
Mulvet explained, “I am very grateful to those small independent craftsmen. Our company usually works with machines and did not master this [manual] technique. Thanks to them we learnt how to cut the beams with axes, to take account of the wood fibers by following them with the eye, much better than with a machine.”
He added, “The quality of the work has improved considerably as a result. The work is much more solid this way.”
Symbolically, it was Philippe Jost, who now chairs the Rebâtir Notre Dame public institution responsible for overseeing the reconstruction, along with the cathedral’s rector-archpriest, Father Olivier Ribadeau Dumas, who put the last two wooden handmade dowels at the top of the structure.
Their hammer blows resounded in the cold, as they fixed the last rafter of the choir, a beam 40 feet long and weighing 350 kilogrammes.
“It was a great moment,” Father Ribadeau Dumas said. “A moment of resurrection of this oak framework after it had collapsed during the fire on April 15, 2019.”
The priest lives at the very foot of the cathedral where he frequently comes to meet the craftsmen.
“I told them that their job was that of Joseph, and of Jesus! Their teamwork was a sight to behold. It was truly beautiful, and for me, as a priest, beauty says something about God. There is a spiritual dimension to this work and this spirit of fraternity that unites so many craftsmen around Notre Dame,” Father Ribadeau Dumas said.
