Catherine Field: European correspondent on the restoration of Notre Dame

It's been five years since a devastating fire gutted Paris' Notre-Dame Cathedral - but the wait is almost over.

The 12th-century cathedral, one of the French capital's most beloved and visited monuments, will reopen its doors next week to tourists and to the Catholic faithful.

European correspondent Catherine Field says no one expected the restoration to move so quickly or be completed under budget - but it's been done.

"It's going to have people coming to France just to look at it. France really does invest in its heritage, in its buildings - anyone who was here during the Olympics or saw it on TV saw that they'd cleaned the city up and that sort of heritage is what brings people to Paris."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudgin
from News Talks edb Right.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
If you are heading to France or Paris for Christmas,
some good news for you. One week from today, Paris
has beloved Notre Dame Cathedral will reopen its doors. It's
been five years since the fire partially destroyed the iconic
tourist attraction. The world has seen its first glimpse of
the restored cathedral as French President Emmanuel Macron visited the site.

(00:34):
Paris correspondent Catherine Field joins me, Now, good morning, Catherine.

Speaker 3 (00:38):
Good morning.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
How big has this undertaking being to repair Notre Dame Cathedral.

Speaker 3 (00:45):
It's been mammoth and back in twenty nineteen, that night,
the fifteenth of April, when President Emmanuel Macrol said he
was going to get it done. The French people were
going to get a cathedral that was just going to
rise out of these ashes. He said everyone was going
to be proud, France was going to have a new destiny,

(01:07):
and no one believed him. And I thought, wow, how
are you going to rebuild this eight hundred and sixty
year old Gothic cathedral in five years? And they've done it,
and they've done it, and they showed it off to
the world and we were all gobsmack. It's so light,
it's so clean. The restoration has been amazing and no

(01:29):
one can believe that it came in under budget. The
work has been done, a bit more to be done
in the next year or so, but it's going to
be open again.

Speaker 2 (01:39):
So impressive. How much has it cost?

Speaker 3 (01:43):
About one point five billion New Zealand dollars. But you know,
let's look at it the other side. It's going to
have people coming to France just to look at it.
France really does invest in its heritage in its buildings.
Anyone who was here during the Olympics or saw it
on TV, you could see that they'd cleaned the city up.

(02:05):
That's of heritage is what brings people to Paris, so
they reckon they're going to get their money's worth from it. Also,
a lot that's been going on behind the scenes has
been very impressive, and in particular the way they've brought
in a lot of young people apprentices to learn how
to be stonemasons, carpenters, architects, roofers. All these trades that

(02:29):
were so long were kind of pass young people didn't
want to do them. Now they've learned these skills, they've
done it, and a lot of them. Just talking to
the ones who met President macarm Friday talking to them,
they're so young. These are in their twenties. So they
will tell their grandchildren I worked on Notre Dame, and
so their grandchildren will in whatever century to come, tell

(02:52):
their grandchildren, Hey, my granddad worked on that. So it's
not only the fact that it's come back to life,
but also that tradesmen have been given their training in
that Old methods have been used, new methods have been used.
You've seen not just ancient techniques but also some cutting
edge technology used, and that will.

Speaker 2 (03:13):
Live on because I'm sure that considering it is an
eight hundred year old building, there are some challenges when
it comes to trying to restore that.

Speaker 3 (03:22):
Oh some of the challenges were just enormous. You know.
You just looked at some of the flying buttresses, for example,
everyone thought they're going to collapse because they were already
being reconstructed. It sort of helped along a bit, only
just holding together even before the fire. Some of the
other things like the bell tower at the front left

(03:46):
hand side, as you look at Notre Dame. That was
the one that was about to fall, and the fireman said,
if that fell, the whole of the cathedral was going
to go. They saved that at the last minute, and
you hear it all on the streets all the time.
No one talks about the firemen. Ef one talks about
the heroes who saved Notre Dame. And that's how they

(04:06):
refer to the firemen three in particular, who went up there.
They asked for volunteers who could go up there and
save that particular bell, and three said we'll go. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (04:19):
It's an amazing story, isn't it. You mentioned how important
it's going to be for tourism in Paris, but what
does it mean to the Parisians to have this restoration complete.

Speaker 3 (04:30):
It's more that this is a very secular country. The
Catholic Church is really on back foot. You don't have
that many people going to Mass. But the idea of
Notre Dame is that's the soul of Paris. That is
zero mark in Paris. All roads are measured from Notre Dame.

(04:51):
And also it's a time when people come together. You
look at some of the most important times in French
history particularly the liberation of Paris. That in nineteen forty four,
the Second World War, Charles de Gaure walking into Notre Dame,
the bell ringing, that is what people remember. People also
remember that coming together after the Paris attacks, the terrorist's attacks,

(05:14):
that everyone went to mass there two days after these
dreadful attacks on which hundreds of people were killed and injured,
and that that is a place where Paris comes together.
It's also a place where you get stuck in traffic
jams outside and you get to look at it for
a long time and the idea it's always been there,
and now everyone thinks, yeah, it always will be.

Speaker 2 (05:37):
When is it going to reopen to the public. And
when it does, do you think they're going to try
and recoup some of this cost Because it's been it's
been free to interactor, now, isn't.

Speaker 3 (05:46):
It It has to be free to enter under a
ninety oh five agreement. It's a law between the church
and state. The state of course owns is Notre Dame.
The state owns or the cathedrals in France. They are
not allowed to charge entry into the cathedral. They will, however,
continue to charge people to go up to on top

(06:06):
of the towers because that's kind of separate. So no
that you're never going to be charged to go into
a Catholic church or a Catholic cathedral in France. The
first mass is going to be Sunday of next week.
After that it's going to be open to the public,
but for the first couple of months people are going
to have to go online book a slot. There's going

(06:27):
to be masses every couple of hours through until so
Eastern next year, so it's going to be a busy time.
Usually they expect around seventeen seventeen and a half million
visitors to Notredam each year. They're expecting to get way
more than that next year.

Speaker 2 (06:43):
Oh, it's very exciting. Catherine, thank you so much for
the update.

Speaker 3 (06:47):
It's a pleasure.

Speaker 1 (06:49):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to news Talks it'd be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.