The French president, Emmanuel Macron, will award prizes in around 100 Crafts and officials who helped restore Notre Dame to his former glory after a fire almost destroyed the beloved Cathedral of Paris six years ago.
The ceremony at the Elysee Palace will take place from the early hours of Tuesday night, almost at the same time that the devastating fire broke out in the Gothic masterpiece on April 15, 2019.
Macron will award the awards in the presence of Prime Minister Francois Bayrou and the members of the Government, including the Minister of Culture, Rachida Dati.
Jean-Claude Gallet, who presided over the duration of the Fire Brigade of Paris, the disaster, will also be present.
“You have achieved what was thought impossible,” Macron told restoration workers and officials after touring the cathedral last November, days before the cathedral returned to the public on December 7.
On Tuesday, Macron will once again speak of France’s “pride” about the success of the operation, according to his team, which said that an average of 30,000 people a day now visit the restored cathedral.
Macron will also honor Philippe Jost, who headed the public organization responsible for restoring the cathedral and was elevated to the “commander” range of the Honor Legion, the highest national award in France.
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Jost succeeded Jean-Louis Georgelin, the general who had been in charge of supervising the restoration but died in 2023.
Georgelin was conferred with the great cross of the Legion of Honor, the highest range of the prize established by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802.
Remi FROMON and Philippe Villeneuve architects will also be decorated.
Together with them, almost 100 officials, businessmen and artisans will receive the Legion of Honor or the National Order of Merit, another main prize established by Charles de Gaulle.
They represent around 2,000 people who tangled up in the restoration of the cathedral.
They come from “all trades” and include folders, iron workers, scaffolding, rope access workers, restorers of organizations and artisans of stained glass, said the French presidency.
Ayamo Albert, who will be converted into a gentleman of the Legion of Honor, combed the forests of France to select oaks necessary to rebuild the needle, the ship and the choir.
The mass restoration project was fined thanks to almost 850 million euros in donations around the world.
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