Paris (AFP)

It is an immense building site in full Paris, where one enters in security suit, not without a certain apprehension. Three months after the fire that ravaged Notre Dame, the time is still to secure and heal the wounds of the cathedral, facing the risk of landslide and collapse.

"There is a place in the cross transepts that will have to monitor," warns Philippe Villeneuve, the chief architect of Notre Dame, during a site visit to which took part in AFP. "We can not intervene (on site), we will have to drop the stone but make sure no one around is touched.

If the gothic jewel has resisted the fire of April 15th, "we are not at all in the (restoration) phase, we are still in the imperious urgency of security" with the vault that can collapse , points out the one who is at the bedside of the cathedral since 2013.

The work is progressing fast, assure the teams in place. This is also the opinion of the Minister of Culture Franck Riester, came Wednesday on the spot, the day after the adoption in Parliament of the bill of restoration. "There was a mountain of rubble there are still a few weeks," he says, a combination of rigor, helmet screwed on the head, the voice covered by the sound of machines.

Under the high vault of Notre-Dame, two robots bustle about and collect rubble, pieces of wood and piles of indistinct stones blackened by the fire. These machines are the only ones with access to certain places, made dangerous by the risks of landslide.

"Nothing goes to the bucket, nothing goes to the landfill," said Philippe Villeneuve. Each gravestone is indexed, sorted and analyzed to obtain an ultra-precise and scientific knowledge of the cathedral.

How old are the woods? At what temperature were the stones exposed? So many questions that will then restore it to the best.

- "new knowledge" -

"This project is not only a matter of architects, but also of scientists, researchers ... It is a disaster that took place but it will bring a lot of new knowledge", judges the chief architect .

About sixty people, workers and companions present on site, are on the bridge. Their actuality is the installation of hangers on the flying buttresses, at a rate of one per day and 28 in total, to solidify them. Then, it will be necessary to install a floor under and on the vault, then to remove the tarpaulins laid a few days after the disaster.

In the cathedral remains a slight burning smell, taking in the throat. Those with noses in the dust wear specific masks, necessary, knowing that the site is polluted with lead from the arrow and the roof.

"We need to take all necessary measures.The Drac (Regional Directorate of Cultural Affairs) works with the labor inspectorate to specify the terms for workers," said the minister. "Cleanings have been made but there are lead soaked stones".

Outside, on the forecourt, a first cleaning was done and another must be started.

Once the security of the site is complete, in several months, the time will be in the inventory, then the diagnosis and the costing of the restoration estimate.

"Today is way too early," said the minister. The "five years" deadline promised by President Macron to restore the cathedral, "this is not the question at all today, the question is the security of Notre-Dame".

Pragmatic, Mr. Villeneuve lists the tasks to be carried out in the coming years: rebuilding the vaults, rebuilding the roof, the roof and the spire, clean up the site and reopen it. "That's the goal of the five years: to put it back to where it was before the fire."

Then rest the other restoration work, those to maintain an 850 year old cathedral. And there, "I will not see the end," he slips into a half-smile.

© 2019 AFP