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- 1. View of the interior of Notre-Dame,
after restoration
Photo: La Tribune de l’Art - See the image in its page
For weeks, a number of journalists who had followed the Notre-Dame construction site closely, like the author of these lines, had been asking to be allowed to visit the restored cathedral before the crowds entered, including those attending the reopening ceremonies. And on Tuesday evening, miraculously, we were invited to visit the cathedral the following day, at 1.30pm. Better not have anything else to do: our colleague from Libération, Bernadette Sauvager, for example, had an obligation elsewhere, so too bad for her! In any case, it was clearly stated in the invitation: it was an ’exceptional’ favour we were being offered. The public institution and the Élysée are too good to let us do our job (see our article on this visit and the restoration).
Well, almost. Because although the interior of the cathedral was widely unveiled last Friday during Emmanuel Macron’s visit, and photos were circulating all over social networks, we were told in a comminatory manner: "No mobile phones, cameras or video cameras [1]". Our articles were also embargoed until 6pm on Friday 6 December. An embargo in press terms, remember, is a piece of information that you don’t want leaked before a set deadline. What extraordinary news was it that we were forbidden to publish before the deadline? That Notre-Dame had been restored?
Forbidding journalists to take photos of a public monument, as if it were a defence secret, is a strange concept of freedom of the press, which has been in force for too long at Notre-Dame since, on our last visit, permission to photograph had already been refused. This time, however, the ridiculous reached new heights.
Before entering the cathedral, the thirty or so journalists present were asked to leave their mobile phones at the entrance. A representative of the public institution took up the collection with a container for the phones. But to no avail: no one agreed to this request, which was worthy of the practices of a Soviet republic. But we were warned: "So I’m telling you, I see one person taking a photo, and that person gets out". And even (literally): "If just one person takes their phone, everyone leaves". Collective punishment in case any of us had the slightest inclination to do our job. As if we were a group of children who needed to be educated.
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- 2. View of the interior of Notre-Dame
after restoration
Photo: Didier Rykner - See the image in its page
What was the justification for this ban? Philippe Jost, the director of the public establishment, explained that the reason was the preparations for the reopening ceremony and in particular the concert given by the Orchestre de Radio-France: "We asked you not to take any photos because we are somewhat behind the scenes of this ceremony and with regard to Radio France, with regard to France Télévision, it is a commitment of loyalty with them not to show these preparations". As if we couldn’t wait to reveal to the astonished world how the musicians had set up in the nave. A pretext made all the more absurd by the fact that all you could see of these preparations were instruments placed on chairs in the nave and a few television screens. Although we said that the only things we were interested in were the architecture and the works of art, they didn’t fall for our ruse, and confirmed the complete ban on photography.
We had to move quickly around the monument (there was no question of climbing onto the stands, and even less of climbing into the timber frame - it was a 45-minute visit in chrono), under the surveillance of several people in charge of checking that no one was taking photos so as not to threaten the opening concert, and we had to keep to a tight group. For having strayed two or three metres from the group to approach a chapel in the ambulatory, the author of these lines was roundly reprimanded by a security guard, who demanded that he rejoin the group! "Stay together... Or else!"
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- 3. View of the interior of Notre-Dame,
after restoration
Photo: La Tribune de l’Art - See the image in its page
Arrived at the end of the visit, when we wanted - at the risk of our lives and our relations with the public establishment - to break the "no photos" order, we were immediately denounced by one of the supervisors (what else to call her) and immediately ostracised, with those in charge demanding that we immediately delete the object of the offence. After refusing, knowing that in any case these few shots, taken on the sly, were of poor quality and that we would have better photos to publish (see our article), we finally deleted them so that the comedy was complete.
From start to finish, the few journalists called in at the last minute as if to give them something to chew on were treated like children or potential delinquents. And we were lucky: how many of our colleagues, whether French or foreign, were denied the Grail that was so sparingly bestowed upon us? We really wonder what they can think of such practices, which we have never seen before, for any event. But after all, all they have to do is watch the ceremony on television, or buy the ’official’ restoration book.