Heritage.

As we walk around the sacristy towards the cathedral square, where a lapidarium houses all the fragments of stone and iron that have fallen to the ground since the fire, Villeneuve points up at the giant metallic lace of blackened metal that used to cover the spire.

When the fire broke out, Notre-Dame was undergoing restoration work and was covered with scaffolding. Miraculously, this did not collapse in the 800C heat, though many of the 50,000 poles melted, making dismantling the structure extremely difficult and perilous for the vaults underneath. Imagine disentangling a gigantic pile of welded pick-up sticks 95 metres above a world treasure of medieval architecture. And until each weakened rib, vault, flying buttress, gable and pinion is supported by a wooden structure or exoskeleton, Villeneuve is holding his breath.

 architect found his calling right there, under those vaults, visiting Notre-Dame as a child with his family in the late 1960s and 1970s. Sitting quietly on the wooden benches while listening to one of the 20th century’s greatest organists, Pierre Cochereau, Villeneuve remembers gazing at the cathedral’s nooks and crannies, the music enhancing every detail and emotion.

Villeneuve is one of 30 chief architects of historic monuments, a position created in 1893. The idea was, and still is, to recruit the most gifted art historians and architects of their generation to oversee France’s architectural heritage; each is given a portfolio of landmark buildings to look after.

They will of course have their say, albeit a consultative one, on the reconstruction of the cathedral — and in particular its spire, for which a flurry of fantastical propositions emerged on social media after French prime minister Edouard Philippe announced an international architectural competition. Some of the designs attracted more attention than others, such as a Swedish agency’s plan for a cross-shaped rooftop swimming pool, or an eco-friendly forest to replace the “forest” of medieval oak beams that had been ravaged by the flames. The British architect Norman Foster declared his interest, envisaging a light and airy see-through roof topped with a crystal and steel spire.

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