Notre Dame: Macron takes first look inside rebuilt cathedral

After more than five years of reconstruction work, Notre Dame cathedral offered its new self to the world on Friday. 

French President Emmanuel Macron was guided around the world-famous monument in a tour that was broadcast live on television.

"Sublime," said a visibly pleased Macron.

He added that the restored building, clean of weather and soot pollution, was "much more welcoming."

Rebuilt soaring ceilings and creamy, new stonework erased somber memories of its devastating fire in 2019.

The some 850-year-old cathedral will welcome back visitors and worshippers over the December 7-8 weekend following a sometimes-challenging restoration since the 2019 fire.

Macron overwhelmed

"This is overwhelming," Macron said as he took an extensive tour along with his wife Brigitte and some officials.

The French president shook hands with many of the craftsmen who had helped reconstruct the structure.

"It was an exceptional renovation project," said stone-carver Samir Abbas, who waited alongside 1,300 other workers for Macron's arrival.

The "building site of the century" was a "challenge that many considered insane," Macron said ahead of his visit on Friday.

Notre Dame will reopen its doors next week to tourists as well as Catholic worshippers.

The symbolic building expects to welcome some 15 million visitors annually.

"We are very eager to welcome the whole world under the roof of our cathedral," the archbishop of Paris, Laurent Ulrich, said on the cathedral's website.

"On the night of April 15, hundreds of thousands of people committed themselves to what then seemed an impossible bet: to restore the cathedral and give it back its splendor within the unprecedented deadline of five years."

jsi/zc (AFP, AP)