Paris (AFP)

It is still too early to say whether Notre-Dame de Paris is saved and to decide whether to restore it identically or not: 2020 will be the year of consolidation and consultations, according to the general responsible for managing the renaissance in five years from the cathedral.

Nine months after the fire which ravaged its roof and knocked down its arrow, "Notre-Dame is not saved", "she is still in a state of danger", Jean-Louis Georgelin reminded Sunday at CNEWS microphone / Europe 1 / Les Echos.

The soldier commissioned by Emmanuel Macron promised a Te Deum to Notre-Dame on April 16, 2024. In accordance with the President's commitment to a restoration in five years, a deadline deemed tight by some and which will be punctuated by numerous stages, security and reconstruction of the building itself.

"What we cannot comment on is the state of the roof, we have to go and inspect it," said Jean-Louis Georgelin, head of the public establishment launched in early December to manage the consolidation and restoration of this masterpiece of Gothic art built from the 12th to the 14th century.

"Today you will not make me say the vault is saved," insisted the general, while being positive: "All the signals we have" go in a direction which is "reassuring".

"All the treasures of the cathedral have been saved," he insisted, speaking of the stained glass windows, roses and even the big organ, "except lead pollution."

The next very complex security operation is the dismantling of the scaffolding installed around the cathedral before the April 15 fire and "welded" by the fire, which threatens the building.

A complete diagnosis will then allow the architects to recommend how to restore the cathedral. Once the invitations to tender are concluded, the start of the actual reconstruction will take place in 2021.

"We will do everything so that this cathedral reopens, is returned to worship and I have no doubt about it", nor on "the deadline posted" by the president, insisted Mr. Georgelin.

- Wood frame? -

The heritage and architectural debate remains open, between an identical restoration, as desired by the architect responsible for Notre-Dame himself, Philippe Villeneuve, or a bold architectural gesture, as mentioned by the executive.

The question is ultra-sensitive, as the release revealed in November - "shut up!" - from the general to the address of the chief architect of Notre-Dame. A "galéjade", swept Sunday General Georgelin returning to the episode.

"We are going to define, for the boom, in the coming weeks the precise process that will allow us to carry out the consultation that has been announced," said Mr. Georgelin. "This will lead us in the course of 2020."

The Minister of Culture Franck Riester had assured in May that the French could give their opinion during a "big consultation", even if the final choice will be up to the State.

But "to rebuild the spire, it must first that the frame has been made, that the roof has been redone," said Mr. Georgelin. For the choice of the frame material, he stresses that the process will be the same, with "study" and "examination of all possible options", denying that the decision has already been arbitrated in favor of an identical repair , in wood.

Composed of a tangle of massive oak beams, the frame of Notre-Dame, nicknamed "the forest", was one of the oldest in the capital.

"It is said that it would be cheaper and faster without having studied the other options at this stage," commented the general, noting that among other cathedrals damaged in France in the 20th century, "none have been rebuilt in wood ".

Of the 922 million euros in donations pledged to rebuild Notre-Dame, he said, "around 400 or 500 million" have been collected at this stage.

© 2020 AFP