Notre Dame is becoming a symbol of Macron’s gung-ho
presidency
Pauline Bock
The innovation-obsessed president is at odds with most
French people who would like a faithful restoration of the cathedral
Mon 10 Jun 2019 06.00 BST
To restore or to innovate? Ever since that terrible blaze
laid waste to Notre Dame in April, the French nation has been divided between
people who want to see the cathedral restored deliberately and precisely to its
former glory, and those who prefer the view of the president, Emmanuel Macron,
who vowed to “rebuild the Notre Dame so it is even more beautiful than it was”.
Macron, in his typically forceful, overambitious style, has
also insisted that the cathedral will be back to its best “within five years”.
“We are a people of builders,” Macron said the day after the fire. “We have so
much to rebuild.”
But instead of being a unifying project, the vexed question
of the restoration of the Notre Dame has become a metaphor for the battle
between Macron’s modernising “startup nation” vision of France, and the large
number of French citizens who don’t want anything to do with it. Some 1,169
architects, curators and professors signed an open letter to Macron, advising
him to wait and to think this reconstruction through. “Let us take the time for
a proper diagnosis,” stated the letter. “Listen to the experts, let’s recognise
their knowledge, and then, yes, let’s fix an ambitious deadline for an
exemplary restoration.”
And polls indicate that more than half the population want
the cathedral back just how it was. Last month the French senate passed a bill
saying that it should be restored to its appearance immediately before the
fire. Yet Macron has approved an international contest for innovative
architectural designs.
At the centre of the modernising row is the cathedral’s
fallen spire. Designed and built by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc in 1859 and 93 metres
high, it was a neogothic masterpiece. As it caught fire and crashed through the
roof, a cherished part of Notre Dame disappeared for ever.
When Macron declared that “a contemporary architectural
gesture” would be an appropriate replacement following the announcement by the
French prime minister, Édouard Philippe, of the competition to design it, a
hashtag soon appeared on social media #TouchePasANotreDame (don’t touch Notre
Dame). Raphaël Glucksmann, a centre-left writer and campaigner, said that
anything other than a complete restoration would “destroy the soul of Notre
Dame”. In a rare moment of political unity across the spectrum, far-right
leader Marine Le Pen and the conservative luminary François-Xavier Bellamy
agreed.
But the various proposals for something completely different
are up and running. The architect Alexandre Chassang has proposed a Shard-like
glass spire, which he shared on Twitter, adding: “We should not copy the past
by mimicry.” Whatever is decided, the works at Notre Dame will be a restoration
of a Unesco world heritage-listed monument, an operation that must therefore
conform with a 1913 law on monuments that limits new additions to such
structures.
The grandson of the original architect, Viollet-le Duc, did
not pick a side, but observed that it was “a fascinating debate between the old
and the new. It’s a shame that Viollet-le-duc is no longer here to participate,
he would have been greatly interested!”
But it’s also a debate that shows how Macron’s gung-ho
approach rubs so many French people up the wrong way. In architecture as in
politics, Macron is obsessed with innovation: the youngest ever president of
France doesn’t want to simply rebuild the cathedral – he has to improve it. In
politics, Macron has a deserved reputation for setting bold targets (such as
liberalising swaths of the French economy) and not worrying too much about the
details, which can end up sparking months-long protests, such as those by the
gilets jaunes. He would like the new cathedral to embody his modernised France.
Rebuilding the cathedral with time and caution could be the
opportunity for a once-in-a-generation project, reconstructing both interior
and exterior using traditional woodworking and architectural expertise. Many
monuments of the country’s heritage are in dire need of restoration work, too,
and Notre Dame could have opened a wider debate in protecting French historical
sites. Macron’s vision of grand contests and impossible deadlines for the
completion of the scheme simply shines a light on the poor management abilities
behind his showmanship.
But I suppose we should be thankful for small mercies. At
least the Notre Dame escaped a rebranding exercise based on the families and
businesses who donated the most money: there will be no cathedral Notre Dame de
L’Oréal. At least not for now.
• Pauline Bock is a French journalist based in Brussels
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