D-4 before the opening of the doors of the rebuilt Notre-Dame

Emmanuel Macron has already lifted the veil on the new colours of the masterpiece of Gothic art, which is over 860 years old, and which has regained a luminosity never seen in living memory, during a final visit to the site broadcast on television on Friday.

Brightly blond walls, painted chapel decorations and stained glass windows radiating bright colours alongside new liturgical furniture in solid bronze, openwork oak chairs and a contemporary reliquary wall housing the crown of thorns that Christ is said to have worn during his crucifixion.

In a bad political position, the head of state is banking on this event that he has elevated to the rank of "French pride", like the Paris Olympic Games, predicting a "shock of hope" after having met his "insane challenge" of a restoration in five years, which he himself had set the day after the fire.

For the reopening, the diocese of Paris says it does not want a "grand show" and prefers to speak of a "magnificent sign of hope" tinged with "humility", according to the rector-archpriest of the cathedral Olivier Ribadeau Dumas on France Inter Monday.

Exceptional safety device

The programme known at this stage provides that after his speech at the end of the afternoon, the opening of the doors and the "awakening" of the great organ, the President of the Republic will attend, with around fifty heads of state whose list has not been communicated, a restricted service presided over by the Archbishop of Paris, Mgr Laurent Ulrich.

Pope Francis declined the invitation, preferring Corsica on December 15.

US President-elect Donald Trump has announced that he will travel to Paris on Saturday to attend the reopening of the cathedral. It will be his first trip abroad since winning the presidential election on November 5.

An exceptional security system, inspired by that of the Olympic Games, is planned in a context of "very high level of terrorist threat", according to the police headquarters, with 6.000 police officers and gendarmes mobilized.

Only guests will be able to access the forecourt, which has a maximum capacity of 3.000 people. On the high quays near the cathedral, an "area will be set up" to accommodate a maximum of 40.000 people.

A major concert on the forecourt, organized by France Télévisions and co-broadcast by Radio France, will close the first day of reopening, where lyrical singing and classical music will showcase the Maîtrise Notre-Dame de Paris and the Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France, conducted for the occasion by Venezuelan maestro Gustavo Dudamel.

Also announced are renowned artists including Chinese virtuoso pianist Lang Lang and South African soprano Pretty Yende.

A pop touch will be brought by Clara Luciani, Vianney and Garou, three very popular artists in France, alongside the Franco-Beninese star singer Angélique Kidjo.

Pharrell Williams?

Speculation continues to run rampant regarding the presence of Pharrell Williams, multidisciplinary star and artistic director of Louis Vuitton's men's collections.

An inaugural mass is scheduled for Sunday morning in the presence of 170 bishops and priests from 106 Parisian parishes. Another mass is to be held in the late afternoon for the public, upon registration.

Extended opening hours, specific services and those for the general public will then follow one another until Pentecost, with a new free reservation system to facilitate the flow of visitors, who numbered 12 million in 2017. The diocese expects "14 to 15 million" each year after the reopening.

Although quickly described as accidental, the causes of the incident have not been precisely determined.

The reconstruction and restoration project will have mobilized 250 companies as well as hundreds of craftsmen. And cost nearly 700 million euros financed by the 846 million in donations that flowed in from 150 countries the day after the fire.

The remaining money will be "reallocated to urgent restorations of the exteriors" of the cathedral, according to Philippe Jost, who took over the reins of the public establishment at the head of the project after the death of General Jean-Louis Georgelin in August 2023.

Five things to rediscover about Notre-Dame de Paris

Four days before the reopening of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, ravaged by fire on April 15, 2019, here are five things to rediscover about this national monument.

Maurice de Sully, the first builder

Maurice de Sully wanted to build the largest cathedral in the Western world: it was the crazy project of a man born a peasant who became Bishop of Paris in 1160. He was not from a great family but he had the support of the king, Louis VII the Pious, with whom he had studied at the cathedral school in Paris.

The 12th century is a period of conquest for Christianity weakened by heresies, schisms... It is necessary to exalt the power of the Church, decrees this great preacher. The cathedral, built after four other churches on the Île de la Cité, will then be, according to his plans, the largest and tallest ever built. It will have towers, a spire with a rooster at the end to wake up sleeping Christians.

Tradition dates the laying of the first stone to 1163. Maurice de Sully, who died in 1196, was not about to see the end of the work, estimated for 1345.

Wine warehouse

During the French Revolution, the cathedral became state property. A "Te Deum" was sung there on September 25, 1792 to celebrate the advent of the Republic.

With the abolition of Catholic worship in 1793, Notre-Dame became a "temple of Reason" with its altar dedicated to the goddess Reason. The statues of kings and saints on the façade were decapitated or cut into pieces and scattered throughout Paris.

In 1794, Robespierre had the existence of a "Supreme Being" voted on, whose worship took place outside religious buildings. Festivities were celebrated outdoors.

Abandoned and dilapidated, the cathedral became a wine depot for the army.

Napoleon was crowned there

Napoleon chose Notre-Dame for his coronation, a first for a French sovereign. Before him, only Henry VI of England was crowned King of France there in 1431.

The cathedral had to be hastily restored. Parisians were expropriated and their houses destroyed to clear a large square where stands were built.

The building is whitewashed. Inside, hangings with the coats of arms and insignia of the Empire hang on the floors, ceilings and walls. They block out natural light.

Three rows of tribunes are installed around the nave and the choir; an imperial throne, surmounted by a canopy, is accessible by a staircase of 24 steps covered with a blue carpet and a throne is raised for Pope Pius VII practically degraded to the rank of witness to Napoleon's self-coronation.

The ceremony immortalized by the painter David lasted three hours in the freezing cold of December 2, 1804.

Saved by a novel

When the novel "Notre-Dame de Paris" was published in 1831, public opinion became aware of the state of decay of the Gothic jewel. Revolution, pillaging, fires... the stone vessel was only a shadow of its former self. The authorities even considered demolishing it.

"It is difficult not to sigh, not to be indignant in the face of the degradations, the countless mutilations that time and men have simultaneously inflicted on the venerable monument," wrote Victor Hugo.

Under his pen, a collective emotion is born for this church personified in a woman with a body of pulpit and stone.

The success of the book led to the creation in 1834 of the historical monuments department, which appointed Eugène Viollet-le-Duc as the architect in charge of its renovation. The work would last more than 20 years and would give the cathedral the appearance it had before the tragedy of 2019.

Not so medieval chimeras

If the gargoyles which adorn the gutters of Notre-Dame date from the Middle Ages, the chimeras were added by Viollet-le-Duc.

Monkey, wild man, dragon, pelican... These fantastic creatures inspired by the caricatures of Honoré Daumier observe Paris with their evil eye from the upper balustrade. One of them, the Stryge, a sort of winged vampire, horned and sticking out its tongue, becomes a symbol of the city.

These chimeras also reflect the renewed interest in the Middle Ages. The country is in the midst of an industrial revolution, but the architect is taking up medieval construction techniques and creating new elements like these chimeras and the spire that disappeared in the 2019 fire.

On June 23, the chimeras were returned to their place. Five of them had been damaged by the flames. The spire was reconstructed identically.