Paris (AFP)

A yellow container and pipes have just been deposited near the Rue de la Cité, announcing on Tuesday morning the beginning of the cleaning of the lead of the streets surrounding Notre-Dame.

At the end of the Quai du Marché Neuf, a semi-trailer truck has just left after having unloaded heavy equipment: two containers, huge black plastic cans, pipes, various pumps and appliances ...

Three policemen ensure that tourists do not cross the barriers, while a guide noisily tells a Spanish group eight centuries of the history of the cathedral and an Asian tourist asks in a hesitant English if she can join the the forecourt, where we see the white tents, fifty yards away.

Also closed by barriers Tuesday morning, the narrow street of Notre-Dame.

Works beginning will extend until August 23rd. They have been delimited into phases and zones. A total of approximately 10,200 m² must be decontaminated by various processes. Two companies were responsible for carrying out these interventions.

First phase: vacuum all that can be asphalt from the street of the City, then brushing with a surfactant and finally a high-pressure rinse for immediate recovery of water by suction.

Zone 2 will cover the entire square as well as the corner of rue d'Arcole and Rue du Cloître. Some coatings of various types, other than asphalt, will require different methods of cleaning.

For granite, stone or travertine, a descaling descaling gel will be brushed with a brush. After a drying time of three days, the solidified gel will be removed.

- Carefree tourists -

At the end of the operations, a control of their effectiveness will still have to be made.

Tuesday, on the rue d'Arcole and on the narrow Rue du Cloître, nothing indicated any imminent future work. Along a large metal fence closing the construction site of Notre-Dame, tourists continued to wander with family. The shops had emerged from the sun their stalls crumbling memories.

The fire that partially destroyed the cathedral on April 15, on the one hand, melted and run off, and on the other hand, released in the form of particles the hundreds of tons of lead contained in the frame of the boom and roof. The City of Paris has been criticized by several associations for failing to reveal the extent of contamination and taking precautionary measures too late.

Suspended at the end of July because of the need to assess these risks, the gigantic rescue site of Notre-Dame proper should resume on August 19th.

This will include putting in place protective equipment for employees of companies that intervene on the spot, from carpenters to stonemasons. Showers, very strict equipment and decontamination procedures at each exit from the site are planned.

It will be gradually, perhaps only in September, that it will resume at full speed, while the first phase, security and consolidation is not yet complete. It will be necessary to complete the reinforcement with the hangers of the buttresses of the cathedral, this time over the nave.

Once this phase is completed, will remain to determine: the nature of the work, the materials, the companies retained, the reconstruction or not of the arrow with the identical and the competition of architects which must determine it, the construction of a cathedral ephemeral on the forecourt for the faithful and tourists, etc. The five years promised by President Emmnnuel Macron for the reconstruction of the cathedral "more beautiful than before" will be decidedly difficult to hold.

© 2019 AFP