At the foot of the cathedral still under construction, four years after the fire of April 2019, another site awaits its turn: the repair of the forecourt, its basement and the squares bordering this masterpiece of Gothic art.
It is only after the reopening of the monument to the public, scheduled for the end of 2024, that must begin this redevelopment wanted by the mayor of Paris, for a budget of 50 million euros, in agreement with the State and the diocese.
The project selected at the end of June 2022, that of the Belgian landscape architect Bas Smets, aims to develop the vegetated spaces around the cathedral, to give the forecourt the appearance of a "clearing".
But since the end of April, an online petition has collected nearly 50,000 signatures. It demands that the two squares to the east of the cathedral be "restored identically", while Bas Smets intends to unify them to create "a large continuous square".
The removal of the grids and the replacement of the flowerbed in lawn accessible to "picnic and play", according to a presentation consulted by AFP, concentrates most of the criticism vis-à-vis the project, planned for 2027.
"Pavlovian conservatism"
"With a denatured setting, Notre-Dame will lose its soul," fears Baptiste Gianeselli, the author of the petition, who explains that he wants to "defend the city that (he) loves and the heritage".
"Truly Pavlovian conservatism", retorts the first deputy mayor of Paris, Emmanuel Grégoire, for whom "with these same arguments, there would be neither the Eiffel Tower, nor the pyramid of Pei in the Louvre, nor the Centre Pompidou, nor even all the Haussmann heritage".
"You can't keep everything the same. The square must be open," abounds the mayor (PS) of Paris Centre, Ariel Weil.
A riverboat passes in front of the squares Jean XXIII and Ile de France at the foot of Notre-Dame de Paris, May 31, 2019 © Bertrand GUAY / AFP / Archives
The local controversy has taken a national turn. Associations regularly opposed to the city's projects, as well as the animator Stéphane Bern, asked in an open letter to President Emmanuel Macron and Mayor Anne Hidalgo to privilege "the simple restoration of the square".
And the Minister of Transport, Clément Beaune, who is believed to have ambitions for the municipal elections of 2026, castigated an "incomprehensible attack" to the gardens of Notre-Dame, while the State was present in the jury of the competition.
On May 11, the National Heritage and Architect Commission (CNPA) issued a favorable opinion to the project, but on four conditions, including the maintenance of the grid of the square.
Assuming its withdrawal with "maintenance guarantees" of the future lawn, Emmanuel Grégoire reminds AFP of the need to "adapt the city to global warming".
"Parisian identity"
As for the historic furniture, another reservation of the CNPA which asks to respect the "Parisian identity" of the square, it "will be reinstalled" after the end of the work, says Emmanuel Grégoire, according to which the implementation of modern foundations is not "arbitrated at this stage".
In 2022, Anne Hidalgo had to abandon her project to repair the surroundings of the Eiffel Tower, which involved the felling of about twenty trees, in front of the media breakthrough of these same associations.
Aerial view of the square in front of Notre-Dame de Paris, June 28, 2017 © Martin BUREAU / AFP / Archives
"The earlier we intervene, the more likely we are to roll back the project," said Alexis Boniface, one of the co-chairs of the National Tree Monitoring Group (GNSA), worried about the "5-6 remarkable trees" that could be cut down around Notre-Dame.
"No trees should be cut down and we should plant 150 more trees," says Emmanuel Grégoire, stressing the "binding and demanding dialogue" imposed on him by the services of the State on a UNESCO site.
© 2023 AFP