voltairenet.org/article206340.html
L’Élysée has used the fire of Notre-Dame de Paris to carry out a project that was in limbo. It has set new rules, outside respect for heritage and normal tendering procedures, not to restore the cathedral, but to transform the Ile de la Cité into Europe’s leading tourist destination on the eve of the 2024 Olympic Games. To avoid judicial constraints, the hypothesis of a construction site accident was arbitrarily imposed.
voltairenet.org/article206525.html
The Ile de la Cité real estate renovation operation and its transformation into a tourist promenade began with the awarding of part of the Hôtel-Dieu to Novaxia, “philanthropist” Joachim Azan’s "transitory urbanism" group (photo).
This mega-operation was imagined in 2016, at the request of President François Hollande and the Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, by the director of historical monuments Philippe Bélaval and architect Dominique Perrault.
It plans to take advantage of the renovation of the Tribunal de Paris, the Prefecture of Police and Hôtel-Dieu, in order to draw all the tourist potential of the Notre-Dame Cathedral and the Sainte-Chapelle.
The cathedral fire constituted a "divine surprise" for the public authorities who will thus be able to carry out this project and commercially exploit the whole island. This, the Minister of the Interior, Christophe Castaner, summed up by declaring that Notre-Dame de Paris is "not a cathedral, it’s our common good".
cruxnow.com/notre-dame-cathedral-fire/2019/05/28/french-senate-passes-bill-for-preservation-of-notre-dames-original-state/
NEW YORK - In an effort to quell controversies over the planned rebuilding of Paris’s Notre Dame Cathedral, the French Senate passed a bill on Monday stipulating that it must be rebuilt to the “last known visual state.”
After an April 15 fire ravaged the cathedral, resulting in the collapse of its famed spire and rooftop, debate has ensued over whether the restoration efforts would possibly include a modern redesign or whether it will be rebuilt to reflect the last iteration of the 12th century structure.
