US President-elect Donald Trump landed in Paris on Saturday to join other international leaders in marking the reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral, which was restored surprisingly quickly half a decade after a devastating fire.
President Emmanuel Macron has hailed Notre Dame’s reconstruction as a beacon of French ingenuity and tenacity, although it comes at a difficult time for the country.
Macron pulled off a big win by persuading Trump to resume his first foreign trip since being elected.
The president-elect will meet with Macron and may also see Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who is among the scores of other international leaders in Paris for the day.
However, the sense of national triumph in rebuilding a treasured symbol of Paris has been undermined by political uncertainty, which has left France without a competent administration and facing a budget catastrophe.
Macron hopes that the first complete service inside Notre Dame, as well as the presence of some 40 international leaders in Paris, will bring a brief sensation of pride and unity, like the Paris Olympics did in July and August.
The reopening “is the proof that we know how to do grand things; we know how to do the impossible, and the whole world has admired us for it on two occasions this year,” Macron stated during a televised address on Thursday, referring to the widely praised Olympics.
During a visit with TV cameras last week, he partly undermined the excitement surrounding the reopening, displaying the cathedral’s freshly scrubbed limestone walls, new furniture, and vaulted wooden roof made from ancient oak trees sourced from France’s finest woods.
The rehabilitation project cost approximately 700 million euros ($750 million), which was funded by donations, and the reopening was completed within five years, despite forecasts that it would take decades.
Workers had to deal with lead poisoning, the COVID-19 outbreak, and the general in charge of the project dying while trekking in the Pyrenees the previous year.
Trump accepted Macron’s offer to attend earlier this week, stating that the French president had done “a wonderful job ensuring that Notre Dame has been restored to its full level of glory, and even more so.”
On Saturday morning, he arrived at Orly Airport in the south of Paris aboard a private plane. US President Joe Biden will be represented by his wife, Jill, and Britain’s Prince William will also be there.
Zelensky is anticipated to seek his first face-to-face meeting with Trump, who has promised to force a peace agreement to end the conflict in Ukraine, possibly by withholding US weapons.
Pope Francis, the head of the Catholic Church, will be a surprise absentee, having opted not to cancel his weekend trip to the French island of Corsica.
When the ceremony begins on Saturday evening, a message from Francis to the French people will be read to the assembled VIPs, church authorities, and select members of the public.
