Construction site
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A few weeks before the start of the restoration of the Parisian building burned down three years ago, the cutting of the stone blocks is in full swing in Bonneuil-en-Valois, where General Georgelin, in charge of the reconstruction operation, surrendered on Wednesday.
Remote-controlled, the shearer – an imposing construction machine – drives her saw into the block of limestone then cuts it methodically from top to bottom. Above the Croix-Huyart quarry in Bonneuil-en-Valois (Oise), the sky, this Wednesday morning in April, is low and heavy. The rains of the last few days have soaked the ground. The troop following General Jean-Louis Georgelin, president of the Public Establishment in charge of the conservation and restoration of Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral (ENDP) has stepped up. For the unwary who are not duly provided for, Olivier Rambach, the commercial director of Pierres de Paris, the company that manages the quarry, generously provides a pair.
To restore Notre-Dame de Paris, devastated during the night of April 15 to April 16, 2019 by a powerful fire, approximately 1,000 m³ of stones will indeed be necessary. During the disaster, approximately 15% of the vaults were destroyed, mainly at the crossroads of the transept, where the neo-Gothic spire by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc collapsed. Half of the stones needed will be extracted from the Croix-Huyart quarry. “It is obviously an honor for us to participate in the restoration of the cathedral”, explains Gautier Horcholle, the technical director.
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