00:00On the 15th of April, 2019, the world watched in horror as flames ravaged Paris' Notre-Dame Cathedral.
00:16After the devastating fire, President Emmanuel Macron set an ambitious goal to rebuild Notre-Dame within five years.
00:23The country received an unprecedented outpour of support, and the race against the clock began.
00:30Before the restoration could start, tons of charred debris and scaffolding had to be cleared from the 850-year-old medieval building.
00:42But complications began to pile up.
00:44The works were delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic and the need to clean up the toxic lead dust, which spread when the roof and spire melted.
01:00Finally, in August 2021, the restoration phase began.
01:05One of the biggest losses in the 2019 fire was the medieval beamed roof, most of which dates back to the early 1200s, and the iconic spire.
01:15To rebuild them both, 2,000 mature oak trees were selected from forests across France.
01:31After being cut, the trees were left to dry between 12 and 19 months.
01:38Meanwhile, inside the cathedral, the race to meet the five-year target was intensifying.
01:54Then came the debate about how the Gothic cathedral should rise from the ashes.
01:58Some argued for an exact historical restoration, while others claimed more modern methods and techniques should be used.
02:05After polling French citizens, it was decided that the new spire would be identical to the previous one designed by 19th-century architect Eugène Villers-le-Duc.
02:15But making an exact copy of the 66-meter-high spire was a technical feat.
02:21Engineers carried out thousands of calculations to guide the work of the carpenters.
02:29While waiting for the spire, the timber frames for the roof began to arrive.
02:40At the end of the year, we will see the silhouette of the cathedral with its arrow in the sky of Paris, even if there will still be scaffolding.
02:51Georges Lens tragically passed away in a mountaineering accident in the Pyrenees and was replaced by his right-hand man, Philippe Jost.
02:59Then, in early December 2023, one year away from the date set for its reopening, the cathedral's spire, still under construction, was crowned by its cross.
03:09A few days later, a new golden rooster was hoisted on the top.
03:14In the Christian faith, the rooster represents the return of light after night and is also one of the symbols of France.
03:28It's been less than a year now, and the straight line is still going to have a lot of days, a lot of battles, but we're going, we're determined, we're confident.
03:39While the original Gothic structure was restored, a new and discreet mechanism was also installed, ready to release water in case of another fire.
03:47In February 2024, the new spire began to appear from behind the scaffolding.
03:52That spring, five years to the day after the fire, Notre-Dame regained its shape.
03:57It's magnificent. It's so impressive to see how much work has gone into it, and it's wonderful that people have bothered to do it, because it's such a tribute to Paris.
04:08While tourists were delighted, some local residents were less pleased, due to 200 tons of lead being installed on the new roof.
04:16But according to the site managers, the roof is inaccessible, causing no risk of lead ingestion, and water runoff will be collected and filtered.
04:28In September, Notre-Dame finally got its bells back when eight of them returned to the North Tower.
04:44And in November, the original statue of the Virgin and Child, which survived the fire, returned home.
04:52The stained glass windows have regained their color, the walls have been cleaned, and the organ restored.
04:58The impressive feat was made possible thanks to some 250 companies, hundreds of experts, and 2,000 workers.
05:06Costing nearly 700 million euros, it was financed by the 846 million euros in donations that poured in from 150 countries in a surge of solidarity.
05:18The remaining money is to be allocated to urgent restorations of the exterior of the cathedral, with works expected to be finished by 2030.
Comments