NOTRE-DAME – Five years after the terrible fire, the majestic cathedral in the heart of Paris is preparing to reopen its doors to the public. The last site visit carried out by the president Emmanuel Macron Friday November 29 allowed images of the interior of the building to be revealed for the first time. In addition to the nave, the Head of State also went to the heights, and in particular under the spire, accompanied by his wife Brigitte Macron.
The opportunity to discover the new “forest” for which thousands of oaks have been carefully chosen. In charge, among others, of this careful selection, Philippe Gourmain, forestry expert and coordinator of the tree harvest for the Notre-Dame spire, on behalf of France Bois Forêt.
HuffPost. How did you come to work on the Notre-Dame restoration project, and how did it unfold?
Philippe Gourmain : There were two phases. The first was immediately after the fire. We had to convince people that we had the oaks and the know-how necessary to rebuild everything identically. And then the second phase began in January 2021, when it was first necessary to find 1,200 oaks for the spire, and another 1,200 for the nave.
Cabinet Gourmain
Forestry expert Philippe Gourmain participated in the vast search for oaks which made it possible to reconstruct the spire and frame of Notre-Dame de Paris.
What is special about oak and how did you choose your trees?
Oak is a noble, luxury species. It is an exceptional quality that requires patience and gentleness. We don’t rush him. If you cut it too much, it grows faster, but to the detriment of its quality.
For the nave, smaller timbers of 40-45 cm in diameter and 12 to 13 meters long were used. In medieval times, when this part of the cathedral was built, there were few tools for lifting large loads and the forests were poor in large timber, especially in Île-de-France.
For the arrow, it was more complicated, because you had to let the wood rest. We used oaks 50 cm in diameter, but we also used around ten remarkable, exceptional oaks, which are more than 200 years old, which are only found in national forests. Some were 1 m in diameter and 20 meters long. This difference in volume with the nave is simply explained by the fact that in 1860, when Viollet-le-Duc added the spire, we had easier ways to move large timbers.
It’s incredible that oaks that have seen two centuries pass can be found in such modern works. Is this a French exception?
We can be proud of the historical continuity that there is in forest management in France. We are in a country where we can exploit trees planted before the Revolution. This is almost an exception in the world, apart from Germany perhaps. As foresters, we were at the end of the chain: we were going to harvest the fruit of 15 generations of foresters before us.
We owe this in particular to Colbert who changed the way national forests are managed. At the time, the idea was to let trees grow in order to have wood big enough to build ships… And stand up to the English who dominated us at sea. But at the time, the forests were overexploited in particular for firewood.
Where did you find these almost 2,500 exceptional oaks and how did you select them?
We took oaks all over France, in state and private forests, known and lesser known. Regions like the Grand Est, the Pays de la Loire and the Center were certainly more suppliers, notably in the Bercé forest, but we also took oaks in Paca, in Occitanie, in Nouvelle-Aquitaine.
As a forestry expert, I know my forests, I knew very well where the oaks that we were eventually going to need were located. In state-owned areas, this is also very well documented.
But we also had to meet the architects’ specifications which were very precise: for example, we shouldn’t have too many knots because otherwise it would weaken the upcoming beam. To choose trees, you have to read them, you have to guess their faults from the outside. Besides, I learned a lot from the sawyers who also have an eye and a high standard for defects. It was also the magical side of participating in the reconstruction of Notre-Dame de Paris.
You have traveled across France in all directions, and in contact with individuals. Are there any encounters that left an impression on you more than others?
The Bercé trees moved me a lot, but I especially remember a meeting that I organized between a private donor of oaks and Rémi Fromont, the chief architect of the framework. It was really the meeting of a 95-year-old gentleman with a philosophy degree and the young architect. He welcomed us by reciting verses. It was sublime and we were all really moved.
Because behind this project, there are also stories of donations. These are people ready to give away the most sublime or largest tree in their garden. This selfless gift of trees which can also be part of the history of an entire family was truly moving.
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