Inside Notre Dame After the Fire

A personal account of the hidden world behind the restoration

I could actually smell the ashes of poor old Notre Dame Cathedral in the air as I walked across Paris.

Seven years ago, I was on my way to the Palace of Versailles for Easter, and I wanted to change from the metro to the RER at St-Michel Notre Dame.

Of course the station was closed, because of the fire the week before.

I found my way above ground with the enthusiastic assistance of a gentleman who I’d taken to be a Metro employee, but who actually turned out to be a lawyer.

When I thanked him for going out of his way, he stopped me, saying:

‘‘At this moment, everyone just wants to help.’

At that moment, I discovered the wonderful secret that was hidden inside the disaster of the great cathedral burning down. The tragedy created cooperation, resilience and renewal.

I was lucky enough to revisit Notre Dame over the next five years to follow the work of rebuilding it, and I saw the best of human endeavour in the form of thousands of people working together to create something remarkable.

I loved helping to make some television programmes about their work, and I hope, if you’re at all interested in building conservation, or restoration, or sculpture, or stained glass, you’ll have had the chance to watch, on the BBC, or if you’re not in the UK, on the National Geographic channel.

There, you’ll see the incredible skills and attention to detail that were needed to bring about this project of a lifetime.

But what I can give my lovely paid subscribers here at MY LIFE IN THE PAST is a flavour of the less telegenic stuff that was involved in actually visiting the site.