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00:00It was both a marathon and a sprint, an intricate puzzle and the greatest of all challenges.
00:20For four years now, we've taken you on a journey around France's most closely scrutinized
00:25construction site, between tradition and modernity.
00:33Technology fit for the 2020s combined with traditional techniques, a jewel of the Middle
00:38Ages, whose fate was entrusted to thousands of men and women across France.
00:49A monument restored identically to the cathedral designed in 1844.
00:57We're inviting you to join us one last time, taking you behind the scenes of what the whole
01:05world will remember as the building site of the century.
01:13Let's go back to the start.
01:14It's the 15th of April 2019, a little before 8pm, and the spire of Notre-Dame has just
01:21been engulfed in flames to the horrified cries of witnesses.
01:26An image that would travel the world.
01:30The cathedral's spire collapsed into the building, a mark that stood here for 800 years.
01:41Four and a half years later, it took months to erect a 600-tonne scaffold so the spire
01:46could be rebuilt.
01:50With a year to go before it was due to reopen, the new cockerel statue that was to tower
01:55above it was blessed by the Archbishop of Paris.
01:58This gilded copper statue was designed by the chief architect.
02:03This cockerel has the virtue of being a memorial, a reminder, 100 meters above the ground.
02:08So it's not something that's very visible from here, but when it's up there, people
02:13will realise that it's not that big.
02:15But it's important that this cockerel means that something happened on the 15th of April
02:19and that the cathedral rose from the ashes.
02:25Placed inside the statue alongside three relics, a sealed cylinder containing a list of names,
02:31those of the 2,000 specialist artisans who took part in the whole project.
02:36With its wings in the shape of flames, the statue resembles a phoenix as it's hoisted
02:40to its place on top of the spire.
02:52A symbolic reward under the golden skies of Paris.
02:55The animal representing those who wait for the coming of a new dawn.
03:01In February 2024, the gradual dismantling of this forest made of metal finally revealed
03:07the spire and its ornaments, restoring the cathedral's historic silhouette.
03:15Standing tall at 96 meters above the ground, this spire once again marks ground zero, the
03:21starting point for all of France's roads.
03:30300 kilometres away, in Ville-du-Les-Puels, northwest France, we'll have access to some
03:38of Notre-Dame's central elements, without which the cathedral would lose a vital part
03:45of its identity.
03:47So here we are in the workshop of the Corny Harvard Bell Foundry.
03:52This is the workshop in Normandy where we made the bells for Notre-Dame in Paris in
03:562012.
03:58Damaged by the fire, these giant instruments have returned to where they were created 12
04:03years ago, the 850th anniversary of the cathedral.
04:07The first step was to assess the damage to the eight bells in the north belfry.
04:14We started by doing an acoustic analysis.
04:17We weighed the bells to check that the weight, note, sizing and qualitative elements hadn't
04:22been altered since 2012, and that was the case.
04:26We had a few doubts about two of the bells, so we carried out a heat treatment and welding
04:31on one of them to restore its original integrity.
04:36The integrity of a bell is mainly determined by how it rings.
04:40It needs to be examined to ensure the heat hasn't affected its note.
04:46This is Marcel.
04:48She's 12 years old and weighs almost 2,000 kilos.
05:01It may not seem like it, but at this level of precision, the ear alone cannot do the job.
05:09A very good musician will perceive a difference of ten-hundredths of a semitone.
05:14Here we're at one-hundredth of a semitone.
05:18All the ringing we did in 2012 was based on the historic note of Emmanuel, which sounds
05:22an F-sharp in the second octave at minus 55, 100, pitch 440.
05:27And all the new bells have been designed to ring with Emmanuel in perfect harmony, whether
05:32in terms of sound power or whether in terms of notes.
05:37Another major challenge is the size and weight of the eight bells.
05:42We're in a relatively small city centre workshop in terms of space, so we had to create a system
05:48to secure the bells, store them and keep them safe as the restoration work progressed.
05:55Two young designers were chosen to create the rack based on two criteria, to reflect
06:00the aesthetics of the site as well as to support 17 tonnes of bell.
06:06The biggest, Gabriel, weighs just over 4.1 tonnes and the smallest, Jean-Marie, is 800 kilos.
06:13Each bell bears this tribute to Saint Augustine, Via Viaturis Quaerit, the route that seeks out travellers.
06:22It is for those travellers that the bells will ring again.
06:30In the meantime, we're back in the capital at the top of the construction site where
06:34a crucial stage is about to be completed.
06:37An unobstructed view over the roofs of Paris, enjoyed by Philippe Jost, who has taken over
06:42from General Georges Lange as head of the construction site.
06:47We don't want to be in competition with what you've done, we know it's symbolic.
06:51But it's a symbol to which we're personally attached.
06:54I suggest, Your Grace, that you place the first peg.
06:58Very well.
06:59This formalized gesture marks the end of the restoration of Notre-Dame's roof structure.
07:05It's identical to the one nicknamed the forest that burned in 2019.
07:13It's going wonderfully. Olivier, it's like you've been doing this all your life.
07:17My dear Philippe, I don't think so.
07:23This is a very important step from every point of view, symbolically speaking.
07:27It's also a very fine piece of work, finished by hand to an extraordinary standard.
07:32The skills being deployed on this site are truly fabulous, they are a credit to France.
07:37At the same time, we have a nice moment, a traditional moment for carpenters, the bouquet.
07:42In this Notre-Dame spirit, you can hear the cheers, it's a very beautiful moment.
07:47To celebrate the end, more than 40 carpenters and framers adorn the fruits of their labor
07:52with the traditional final bouquet.
07:54Less than a year to go before the building reopens,
07:56these craftspeople are saying goodbye to the site, a moment of pride and emotion.
08:02It's a young team.
08:04Yes, it's a very young team.
08:06We're both 30 years old, but we are part of a team that was there more or less from the start,
08:10so we've been able to follow the development of the site.
08:13Obviously, a year on, you can't help but be impressed.
08:17We have butterflies, as you might say.
08:19Magic has been done here.
08:21It's something that will stay with you all your life, will remember for the rest of our lives.
08:27There's a lot of humanity in these structures, and that's why they're so beautiful.
08:31It's because there are so many people.
08:32The more human there is, the more beautiful it is.
08:35It's got soul.
08:37There's soul and meaning.
08:39Soul and meaning.
08:41A phrase that the Gargas artisans wouldn't argue against.
08:45We have another meeting in this Provence commune,
08:47this time 700km away from ground zero.
08:50The Mathieu Chandelier factory took up residence here in 2002 in these former ochre factories.
08:56But the company, handed down from generation to generation,
08:59was first set up after the Second World War.
09:02Régis Mathieu took over from his mother at 19 years old.
09:09And his daughter, Inès, joined the family in 1999.
09:13The fact that I started out with Notre-Dame is a source of great pride,
09:16and I'm pleased it marks the future succession of the company.
09:20Awarded the Living Heritage label,
09:22the workshop has been maintaining the cathedral's candelabras and chandeliers,
09:26as well as restoring original Notre-Dame architect Viollet-le-Duc's great crown of light,
09:32which was moved to the Basilica of Saint-Denis in 2014.
09:36Ten years later, despite the experience gained,
09:38there's still a lot of work to be done.
09:40There were some lights that had fallen down,
09:42they were completely destroyed,
09:44or in any case, half the chandelier was completely twisted or dented.
09:47We had to recreate some pieces because they disappeared over time.
09:51It's all about a dozen skills around the industry.
09:54There are craftspeople who spend about two months per chandelier restoring them.
10:00My name's Gregory, I'm a bronze fitter.
10:03I'm Mathilde, and I'm an electrical fitter.
10:05I'm Michael, I'm an electroplater, and I do the patinas.
10:09I'm Maxence, site manager and responsible for light fittings.
10:13My name is Jean de Dieu, I'm a polisher.
10:16The hundred or so pieces entrusted to the chandelier experts
10:19are first de-polished, the lead is removed,
10:22and then they pass into the hands of Jean de Dieu.
10:24Can you see the varnish?
10:25We're going to strip it off with this solvent.
10:28The start of a long process.
10:30It's a lot of work.
10:31Sixteen arms for thirteen chandeliers, each taking roughly thirty minutes.
10:36That's 104 hours of work, or more than four days, just for this one step.
10:40But after stripping, then cleaning, comes the polishing.
10:45Jean de Dieu's speciality.
10:52The chandelier is now ready to be polished.
10:55The chandelier is now ready to be polished.
10:57That's the miracle.
10:58With Notre-Dame, there are always miracles.
11:02But the miracle would not be complete without the final stage,
11:05the varnishing.
11:07And here again, the supernatural is called into play.
11:10Mr Mathieu calls me the magician.
11:16I took a light fitting that was in fairly good condition
11:19to get my colour reference.
11:22It took a long time.
11:23I took a light fitting that was in fairly good condition
11:25to get my colour reference.
11:27It took more than fifty tries to get this result.
11:34That's the original colour you can see there.
11:37You can't tell the difference from the original colour.
11:40It's on purpose.
11:43When you see the chandeliers upstairs, you're happy.
11:45You think, that's our work.
11:47People walk past it and they don't even realise that's the fun of it.
11:50That's rewarding for us.
11:52I'm looking forward to seeing the result.
11:53Oh yes, I'm definitely going there.
11:56A cathedral without its lights is so sad.
11:58You don't get that aspect, that luster that makes you look up.
12:03That's what makes us look at the whole cathedral.
12:05It's what makes the walls shine, the paintings shine.
12:08It's what brings it to life.
12:11The chandeliers will soon be returning to the central nave of Notre-Dame,
12:15giving it back what had been lost in the fire.
12:18A little bit of soul.
12:22But before the doors open again,
12:24the cathedral will also have a moment to catch its breath.
12:28We enter just after the workers have left.
12:32Under the eye of the West Rose,
12:34the great organ resounds once again
12:37as the construction hammers finally fall silent.
12:42It's 9.57, almost 10pm.
12:44Apart from the organ fan and a few little noises coming from the organ itself,
12:48you can't hear anything in the cathedral.
12:50It's really a great silence and a great privilege
12:52to have a quality of silence like that.
12:54Because even once the cathedral has been given back to worship,
12:57to the faithful, to tourists,
12:59obviously we'll never have this quality of silence again.
13:04Bertrand Catiot has spent more than half a century
13:07at the service of Notre-Dame's lungs.
13:1352 years ago, almost to the day,
13:16I came to this gallery to meet Jean-Louis Boisseau,
13:19who was an organ builder.
13:21I was 17 and I fell in love with the cathedral.
13:27And its great organ, astonishingly safe from the fire.
13:30Neither the flames nor water from the fire brigade harmed it.
13:33However, it was contaminated by lead
13:35and had to be completely dismantled to be cleaned up.
13:38So it has to be tuned again.
13:41Laurent will be at the keys
13:43and he'll listen very carefully to each note
13:45and he'll be able to say, for example,
13:47that this one is perhaps a little louder than the other.
13:50So we need to reduce the sound intensity of this pipe.
13:54And to work the pipes,
13:56you have to get 13 metres above the keyboard.
14:00It has to be earned,
14:02but a few hundred steps above lies the reward.
14:07Tuning an organ means giving it the right notes
14:10and ensuring that all the notes sound just right.
14:13Does it sound right?
14:15It sounds just right.
14:18When it doesn't, the offending pipe or pipes
14:21have to be lengthened or narrowed,
14:23a job done by hand.
14:26There's a natural phenomenon
14:28whereby two pipes of the same note
14:30that aren't completely in tune produce a beat.
14:33So it goes woo-woo-woo
14:35and the aim is to remove this beating sound.
14:38With this tool, I can raise the pitch by doing this.
14:41It opens the pipe.
14:44Or I can mould it, tap on it,
14:46and the metal bends.
14:48You have to do that on every pipe on the organ.
14:51There are 8,600 or so.
14:54Nearly 8,000 in fact,
14:56but they have to be checked several times,
14:59which means six months' work.
15:01A small price to pay to restore
15:03the powerful sound of the largest organ in France.
15:11With less than four months to go
15:13before the church reopens,
15:15we make a final visit to Notre-Dame
15:17where we meet with Marcel, Gabrielle and Anne Geneviève.
15:20The eight bells are to be blessed
15:22before returning to the north belfry
15:24built by the carpenters.
15:27What's important today
15:29is that the cathedral is a sign,
15:31a sign that peace is possible,
15:33a sign that everyone is welcome,
15:35whoever they are,
15:37whether they are believers or non-believers.
15:39Notre-Dame is Notre-Dame de Paris,
15:41a cathedral for Catholics
15:43but also a cathedral for Parisians.
15:45It's also the Notre-Dame of humanity.
15:47It is in a way the world's cathedral.
15:49And I know that all over the world
15:51millions of people want to be able
15:53to come back here in the coming months
15:55because they were so upset
15:57when the fire broke out.
15:59The cathedral in the sky,
16:01which fell silent in 2019,
16:03will once again ring out.
16:05We will rectify the trajectory
16:07otherwise it won't go.
16:09In the meantime,
16:11the bells have returned home.
16:13Marcel, who we filmed in April,
16:15was dragged by workers
16:17centimetre by painstaking centimetre
16:19to the top of the north belfry.
16:23The gaping wound in the transept crossing
16:25where the spire pierced the vault
16:27in 2019 has been closed.
16:31We're only going to do this once in our lives
16:33and at the end of the work
16:35I think we'll be proud of what we've done.
16:38Right under Fabien's feet,
16:40the four angels of the resculpted
16:42and redecorated Oculus
16:44once again watch over the cathedral.
16:47Chapel restorer Mary Baron
16:49is taking stock.
16:51The human side is exceptional.
16:53You really get to understand each other's professions.
16:55Thousands of men and women
16:57are bidding farewell to the Notre-Dame
16:59construction site.
17:01To be able to go into the cathedral
17:03without scaffolding
17:05and really enjoy the whole thing as spectators
17:07is something we're really looking forward to.
17:09An impatience shared by millions
17:11of tourists and worshippers
17:13deprived of Notre-Dame for five years.
17:15The world's most famous cathedral
17:17is finally ready
17:19to let everyone back in.