"Stay Together... Or Else!"

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…