The team restoring Notre Dame to glory
Anne-Laure Plotard, is the site manager, and a painting restorer and curator.
Next to her, Ouaziz Abrous is fire safety and emergency foreman.
And beside him, Oceane Taisne is a stained glass artist.
They are photographed in black and white — creative portraits, with them staring into a visionary distance, and with lighting and effects that give an ethereal quality.
They seem to be gazing into the future, as much as their practical skills have them firmly focused on the present and what surely must be the world’s most visible restoration project.
Camera IconNotre Dame with its display showing the restoration team. Credit: Stephen Scourfield/The West Australian
For these big portraits, with explanation of the subject and their skills, are displayed on a long wall in front of and underneath the completely recognisable two towers of Notre Dame Cathedral.
This medieval Catholic cathedral on the eastern end of Ile de la Cite, a small island in the Seine River in the centre of Paris, was on the ruins of earlier religious sites — a Roman temple dedicated to Jupiter and a Christian Romanesque basilica.
This place, built between the 12th and 14th centuries, is renowned for its French Gothic architecture, and dedicated to the Virgin Mary. To many locals, it is “Our Lady of Paris”.
It is also now renowned for the fire in April 2019 that engulfed it and destroyed the roof and spire. The vision of the fire ripping through the roof and up into the night sky is haunting — certainly for me, for the people of Paris and, I am sure, for most of the 12 million people who visited the cathedral each year before the fire. Notre Dame is an object of beauty, constancy and belief, and loved by the world almost as much as it is by Parisians. Whatever the faith.
Construction had begun in 1163 under the reign of King Louis VII, and Notre Dame was mostly completed by 1345. It is a custodian of history and culture, as it has witnessed so many successes, celebrations, wars and revolutions — the most joyous and devastating moments of France and the French.
Reconstruction was announced even as the embers were cooling, and the heart of Paris will beat again when mass is said at Notre Dame Cathedral on December 9, 2024.
Camera IconNotre Dame Cathedral under scaffold. Credit: Stephen Scourfield/The West Australian
What is extraordinary to me is the people, and the skills, involved. To pull together such a vast team of highly specialised artisans is reflective of the very nature and essence of France. It is not over-generalising to say France has design, detail, delight and the divine in its DNA. “It is an icon of identity,” as excellent Paris guide Sandtine Vaillant says.
I named some of these people at the top of this story. But there are many, many more, of course.
Romain Langlais is an expert roofer, Yoan Malbranque is the head carpenter for the transept wooden framework, and Balla Cisse is a wood joiner who is skilled with hand tools. He is photographed with carving chisels and a hand plane.
Amelie Strack is a sculpture restorer and Lyes Dahoumane a highly skilled crane operator.
And Patrick Jouenne, as head carpenter for the spire wooden framework, has a particularly high profile (and high pressure) job. The spire is made of five parts, including “the stool” and four oak supports, which alone weigh a combined 80 tonnes. Jouenne studied the ancient method of “stitching” the pieces together, and the huge pieces have been interlocked using entirely traditional methods. Patrick Jouenne has said it is “the work of a lifetime”.
The spire is controversial.
In July 2020, it was announced that the spire, which is more than 90m tall, would be rebuilt exactly as it was before the fire. The announcement of this by General Jean-Louis Georgelin, in charge of the reconstruction, followed months of controversy over the future appearance of Notre Dame. A glass spire had been planned but, and President Emmanuel Macron had first supported this replacement by a “modern architectural gesture”. There was opposition to this, and protests from many sides. Chief architect Philippe de Villeneuve, who opposed the new spire design and materials, was told publicly to “shut his big mouth” by General Georgelin. But, despite the French government originally launching an international architectural competition for the new design, President Macron did a complete turnabout.
Camera IconNotre Dame Cathedral under restoration. Credit: Stephen Scourfield/The West Australian
The reconstructed wooden spire was revealed in March 2024 — identical to the 1859 spire designed by architect Eugene Viollet-le-Duc, in all its Gothic glory. It’s top is complete with a recreation of the original cross, and a golden rooster, designed by Philippe Villeneuve.
The rooster is a symbol of the French people (it is a play on words of the Latin gallus meaning Gaul and gallus meaning coq, or rooster). The rooster on the top of the spire before the fire contained three relics — a small piece of what is believed by some to be from the Crown of Thorns worn by Christ, a relic of St Denis, and a relic of St Genevieve, the patron saint of Paris. It is recorded that the piece of the Crown of Thorns was personally placed by Viollet-le-Duc in 1860.
The 2019 fire collapsed the spire, but when the debris was cleared, the rooster was found intact, and the relics were recovered. It has been on display in the Cite de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine museum in Paris — a symbol of resilience, resurrection and hope.
Villeneuve has said of his new rooster that its “wings of fire” are symbolic of the cathedral rising from the ashes, like a phoenix.
Camera IconPeople in the square in front of Notre Dame Cathedral. There is a grandstand for viewing. Credit: Stephen Scourfield/The West AustralianPREVIOUS RESURRECTIONS
This is not the first time that Notre Dame has been saved.
After being damaged in the French Revolution, the cathedral, along with many other Gothic monuments, was neglected and fell into disrepair.
Author Victor Hugo, of Les Miserables fame, is largely credited with drawing attention to this, and helping to save the cathedral, through his novel, The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
If you haven’t read the original story, but just seen the old film, this may be the moment — as the book is accessible French literature, and with a message.
For Hugo wanted to write a novel that would portray the cathedral as a valuable work of art, change French society’s indifference to its plight, and promote its preservation.
He started work on the book, but his early efforts stalled and then, in July 1850, the second French revolution (which lasted only three days) erupted. Some academics feel this revolt, leading to the overthrowing of King Charles X, crystallised the author’s vision for his novel.
(Mind you, at the same time, Hugo had mounting debts, and his publisher was threatening to sue him for breach of contract, as he hadn’t delivered the book — and that is crystallising, too.)
Hugo hunkered down in his Paris apartment and finished the book in 18 weeks.
It was a success; a petition was raised and the cathedral was restored by architect Eugene Viollet-le-Duc between 1845 and 1864.
Camera IconNotre Dame under renovation. Credit: Stephen Scourfield/The West AustralianFIRE ALERT AT VERSAILLES
Smoke brought local firefighters to the Palace of Versailles, just outside Paris, on June 11, 2024.
Plumes of smoke were seen at the site of renovation work on the roof near the Marble Court. This part of the original chateau was built in 1623 by French King Louis XIII.
It was reported that there was no fire, but smoke billowed from a “hot zone” in the roof’s wood. The firefighters quickly doused the area smoking.
Eight million people a year visit Versailles, and those there at 3.15pm, after the smoke was spotted, were quickly evacuated.
In France, it naturally sparked memories of the 2019 Notre Dame fire.
Camera IconNotre Dame Cathedral under restoration. Credit: Stephen Scourfield/The West Australian
Camera IconPeople in the square in front of Notre Dame Cathedral. There is a grandstand for viewing. Credit: Stephen Scourfield/The West Australian
Camera IconNotre Dame under scaffold. Credit: Stephen Scourfield/The West Australian
Camera IconNotre Dame under renovation. Credit: Stephen Scourfield/The West Australian
Camera IconNotre Dame under renovation. Credit: Stephen Scourfield/The West Australian
Camera IconNotre Dame under scaffold. Credit: Stephen Scourfield/The West Australian
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