Do you get the references? Notre Dame cathedral re-opening speech by Macron 2024.

[@StagArmslower]

Victor Hugo was the engine for rebuilding the Cathedral which was supposed to be tor down. He wrote the open letter about the beauty and historical value of it for France and the future. At his time Cathedral was in disrepair, mostly the exterior and the spire which was removed and roof replaced with the lead covering

[@ouicommunicate]

Ah I see! That explains. Thank you for the info I'm starting to understand it all a bit better !

[@francoisleyrat8659]

On returning the cathedral to the Catholics : reflects the French idea of secularism, and a reference to the 1905 law separating Church and state, which provides that cathedrals built before that date are owned and maintained by the state, the Church being a mere user.

[@ouicommunicate]

That's interesting, I didn't know that. Merci !

[@JimOHara-dg8dl]

Je vous remercie pour cela. En tant qu'apprenant de français anglophone, j'ai regardé le discours de Macron en direct. Je pensais en avoir bien saisi le sens. Cependant, votre analyse a porté ma compréhension à un tout autre niveau. Je vous remercie.

[@ouicommunicate]

Je suis content que cela vous ait rendu service! Je crois que de facon presque subliminale il y a bcp de references a la grandeur: le mot lui-meme est deja utilise plusieurs fois, mais aussi des termes comme "montagne", les 11 rois, la Russie, le nombre de metiers differents, la distance, le temps...tout ca contribue a une idee de grandeur.

[@StagArmslower]

Support of the roof is called the forest

[@ouicommunicate]

Interesting ! I didn't think there was an actual forest...then again you never know. One of the original plans was to put a sort of garden on the roof I believe.

[@shweefranglais7900]

17 August 2023 General Jean-Louis Georgelin, the French army general appointed by Emmanuel Macron to oversee the reconstruction of the fire-ravaged Notre-Dame Cathedral has died while hiking in the Pyrénées. He is believed to have fallen on Mount Valier, near the Faustin pass in the Ariège, south-west France, at an altitude of 2,650 metres . The public prosecutor’s office in Foix confirmed on Saturday the body had been formally identified and that the death was being treated as an accident. Macron a tweeté samedi : ”Avec la mort du général Jean-Louis Georgelin, la nation a perdu un de ses grands soldats, la France un de ses grands serviteurs et Notre-Dame le maître gestionnaire de sa renaissance.

[@ouicommunicate]

I love that you can fill us in on all the things I missed! Merci ! I suspected something had happened to him from the way Macron said "pensee emue" but as I was translating "en direct" I didn't take time to check.