![]() HENRIKSON: But a lot of people involved with the historic monuments, historic buildings of France, are really enamored with the traditional way of doing it and want to preserve that. ![]() So they could have used faster modern techniques. So the middle of the tree is in the middle of the timber.īEARDSLEY: Notre Dame's charpente, or roof frame, won't be seen by anyone, says Henrikson. PETER HENRIKSON: Taken from the round tree to a squared timber all by hand, all with axes - all these timbers are what's called boxed heart. He says these hand-hewn trusses are special. Peter Henrikson is a carpenter from Minnesota who heard about an opportunity to work on Notre Dame through the organization Carpenters Without Borders, a group reuniting those who share a love of traditional methods. The roof frame is dating from the medieval - the 12th century, and especially just the big volume of wood.īEARDSLEY: He says the nave and choir roof needs some 1,400 oak trees. JEAN-BAPTISTE BONHOURE: We've never done something like that before. Still, Notre Dame is special, says CEO Jean-Baptiste Bonhoure. But keeping the wood fibers the whole length of the beam gives it more resistance.īEARDSLEY: This company devotes itself to France's historical monuments, so its carpenters are used to working with traditional methods. And, yes, we could easily cut this log into two long planks. You got the wood in the nearby forest, like we're doing. JOSEPH CANUEL: (Through interpreter) We made roofs well before saws and sawmills existed, and this is how it worked. The oak trees are transformed into long, square beams by hand. ![]() It burned like a forest, too.īEARDSLEY: At this 250-year-old carpentry company in France's Loire Valley, they're busy reconstructing it, but you don't hear the whirring of electric saws. Here's NPR's Eleanor Beardsley.ĮLEANOR BEARDSLEY, BYLINE: The wooden structure supporting Notre Dame's roof was so vast it was known as the forest. ![]() The landmark at the heart of Paris is slated to reopen by December 2024 after the devastating fire there in 2019. The restoration of Notre Dame Cathedral is putting artisans all across France to work. ![]()
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