Episode 232 - Notre Dame with Four Weeks to Go

Yesterday marked just four weeks until we returned inside the Cathedral Notre Dame de Paris. The doors will open, and we will cross through the Portail du Judgment Dernier. Once again, we will look up and take in every amazing detail the cathedral has to offer.

For the last 2,037 days, we have clung to every bit of news from the restoration site. Over the last few years, I have witnessed the smallest changes, from the cleaned pinnacles to the largest, with the reappearance of her spire. With each update, the past five years quickly become a memory, and it feels like her silhouette has always reached out to the sky.

On November 15, the Notre Dame of the Pillar will arrive at Notre Dame after her week-long trip across France. For the past few years, she has been safely tucked away in Saint Germain l’Auxerrois next to the Louvre, where the Crown of Thorns occasionally occasionally appeared.

While the US celebrates Thanksgiving, we in Paris will give thanks to the march of paintings, sculptures, and new furniture back inside the cathedral.

Labeled the Renaissance of Notre Dame, a beautiful way to describe it, it has also involved over 2,000 craftsmen and women from 250 companies working on every single millimeter of the 860-year-old cathedral.

Many of the changes can easily be seen. The entire roof and spire have returned to give us the familiar silhouette, and much of the scaffolding has been removed. All that remains is what moves the workers to the roof and the surrounding upper chevet.

All mechanical and state-of-the-art fire systems have been installed.

The Grande organ is tuned and ready, but the smaller choir organ must be rebuilt as it was destroyed in the fire.

The towers will reopen to those who want to climb to the top after December 8 with a new route up the south tower. Two new landings have been added to help you catch your breath. The first landing will also have a history display of the cathedral and the key dates it has been a witness to. The exit down the north tower will also have a new book shop, which, thank goodness, isn’t on the way up. The towers were completed in 1250, almost a hundred years after the church's building began. During the night of the fire it was the north tower that held the turning point on saving the Cathedral or watching it fall into ruins

The eight bells of the north tower were removed, cleaned, and tuned, and for the first time in over five years, they rang out once again at 10:30 a.m. on November 7. They will ring a few more times before the opening to ensure everything is working.

When we return in just four weeks, it will mark a new key date in the cathedral's life. However, the work will be far from finished.

While the interior is finished, the exterior of Notre Dame and the surrounding area will have three to four more years of work. With the roof structure in place, it is now time to return the ornamental objects to their perch. The lower part of the spire, the open work, still needs to be covered in lead. The scaffolding surrounding the spire reached through the roof to the altar floor and was removed over the summer to reinstall the marble steps and flooring.

Now that the roof is in place, the scaffolding will once again crawl up the crevices of the transept, allowing the ornamental roofers to attach the preformed lead decorative pieces. When this is finished, the sixteen statues created under Viollet-le-Duc will finally rest atop the roof to watch over Paris once again. I can’t wait for that day! This should all be happening at the start of 2025.

On each of the four sides of the transept are the clocks, which also control the bells placed on the roof and ring out on the hour each day. On Friday, November 8, the three new bells were displayed, two of which were struck by gold medal winners during the Olympics. Beginning in the next few weeks, they will be placed on the roof and ring out at each hour of the day.

Every week, we hear inspiring stories from the people and companies working on bringing Notre Dame back to us. Le Bras Fréres, a construction company that has been a part of the project since the morning after the fire. They quickly created large hangers at their workshop in Lorraine to fit under each buttress to hold up the cathedral. Twenty-eight were created, each weighing ten tons,

The buttresses play a very important part in the structure of a Gothic cathedral. Each distributes the weight to give the building its light and airy look. This also means that if even one were to fall, the entire church would be in jeopardy.

In yet one more giant ray of hope, they recently began to remove them. Beginning on the south side of the nave, they will slowly be removed one by one from the south to the north side by early 2025. Work will continue on the back part of the church, the cheat, and the buttresses at the beginning of the year.

Of the 860 million euros donated to restore the church, a bit more than 140 million euros are still left, which will be used to pay for any continued work.

When the portable office structures are finally removed, the City of Paris will then step in and have a major plan to develop the area surrounding the church. A large reception area for the public with cafes, restrooms, meeting spots for groups, and a bookstore will be built under the forecourt in the old parking lot. Complete with windows out to the Seine. Above ground, 160 trees will be added, and a park will be extended along the south side of the cathedral. Incorporating the existing park will stretch to the eastern end of the island. I can’t wait for the day we once again get to sit under the bushy pink cherry blossoms.

Information on the opening weekend of Notre Dame de Paris is slowly being announced.

The first weekend of December will be the 3rd Opening Ceremony of the Year in Paris and by far the greatest of them all.

On December 7, a mass with the archbishop and church officials will follow a ceremonial key exchange from President Macron. There is currently a battle taking place between the Catholic Church, which is voicing its concern that they do not need the key exchange. However, it is actually the French government, not the Catholic Church, that owns the famed cathedral, so here we are.

The opening on December 7 is by invitation only and will be under the highest security.

The date of December 8 was specifically chosen as it is the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, which will be marked with multiple masses throughout the day.

All visitors will need a timed ticket. This ticket should be free, but this could change if the Minister of Culture gets her way. Tickets will only be available a day in advance and ONLY through the official Notre Dame website.

I will have details as soon as they are announced.

Inside, the visitor route has changed with entry through the center's Last Judgment door and to Northside, Ally of the Promise, and chapels renamed for seven important figures of the Old Testament.

South will be the Alle of Pentecost, named after the Saints of Paris and the Fruits of the Holy Spirit: St Joseph, Thomas of Aquinas, Clothilde, Vincent de Paul, Denis, and Genevieve. The opening will also launch a new app with walking routes, history, and information. Fifteen million people are expected to visit in the first year, that is more than the Louvre sees, so pack your patience and prepare to wait to gain entry, but I promise it will be well worth the wait; hey, we have waited five years and eight months, whats a few more hours.

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