Watch live: President Macron visits Notre Dame as reconstruction marks milestone date

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails

Sign up to our free breaking news emails

Watch live as President Emmanuel Macron visits Notre Dame as its reconstruction hits a milestone date on Friday (8 December).

Today marks one year until the cathedral opens to the public following a devastating fire in 2019.

The French President will don a hard hat and tour the fenced-off reconstruction site where stonemasons, carpenters and hundreds of other artisans are hammering away to meet the 12-month deadline.

When their job is done, they will hand over to Notre Dame’s priests, employees, chorists and worshippers.

With prayers, songs and devotion, they’ll give the cathedral the kiss of life and celebration to nudge aside the pain the April 15, 2019, blaze inflicted on French hearts and Catholic faithful around the world.

Notre Dame is “not the biggest cathedral nor perhaps the most beautiful,” the Rev. Olivier Ribadeau Dumas, its rector, told The Associated Press this week, but “it is the incarnation of a nation’s soul.”

“The expectations, the preparations for the reopening are a magnificent sign of hope in a difficult world,” he said.