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While waiting for the end of its reconstruction planned in a year, Notre-Dame de Paris will not have completely disappeared from the scene and even less from the collective imagination. More than three years after the devastating fire, the cathedral has never even ceased to exist for the visitor who dares to cross the borders of reality. Virtual tour, augmented exhibition, “escape game”… Thanks to the strength of French digital and an unprecedented creative impulse, witness to the dynamism of the French Touch and its advance in the craft professions and digital culture, companions from France to networks of start-ups and creative studios, the emblematic monument, its history, its architecture as well as the professions which built it, can be (re)discovered not without emotion. This is what the speakers at the round table “Notre-Dame de Paris, emblem of the creative imagination and French know-how” tell us, moderated by Marie Yanowitz-Durand, director of communications, development and cultural program of “Rebuilding Notre-Dame de Paris”.

Dominique Niel, general director of Ateliers de France: “You can start with a manual profession and end up at the head of your company”

"Les Ateliers de France are a group of 53 SMEs (spread across 12 countries around the world) specializing in the restoration of heritage and high-end decorative buildings. People who are passionate and extremely proud of their projects, such as the Grand Palais, the Château de Villers-Cotterêts, and of course Notre-Dame, as well as modern complexes focused on luxury, such as the Cheval Blanc hotel at La Samaritaine. Les Ateliers de France represent 2500 employees, including 1900 companions. Our raison d'être is manual work. Our professions are diverse. On the Notre-Dame construction site, we take care of the framework of the Nave. It is also the roofing, the façade decorations, all the interior trades such as woodwork and painted decorations, etc. The Notre-Dame construction site is exceptional in its size, the scope of the work, and the multitude of professions involved. A very well-organized construction site that took place in three phases: the security phase, since the cathedral could have collapsed, the flying buttresses threatening to collapse. The site also had to be decontaminated and sensors installed to check whether the cathedral would move during the work. Then a study phase with laboratory tests to decide on the restoration protocols. This was followed by the actual work phase, with the intervention of a procession of experts, stonemasons, sculptors, mural specialists, carpenters, ironworkers, etc. Finally, the technical lots phase since the cathedral will have to be electrified, heating installed, etc. Which represents, for us, up to 200 full-time workers, with peaks of 600 in the cathedral, and almost as many in the workshops on the outskirts, in Anger for the framework, in the quarries, etc. These are only enthusiasts, many young people who have come forward spontaneously. You should know that some companions can work as in the Middle Ages: the framework of the Nave was cut with a doloir with these special axes wielded by carpenters from the United States, Canada, and France too, the only ones to master this know-how. In these professions where recruitment is not easy, as evidenced by certain European countries such as Denmark where stonemasons have disappeared, it is essential to encourage vocations. But emblematic construction sites like this one are of interest! We had already seen this on the construction site of the Hôtel Lambert, on the Île Saint-Louis, where young people put their CVs in the mailbox to come and work. So we have a lot of requests, but it is not enough... We need to do much more to interest young people, open days, Heritage Days, etc. Working with your hands is a good thing. And I say this, if there are any young people in the room: you can start with a manual job and end up at the head of your own business."

Deborah Papiernik, senior VP New business at Ubisoft: “Notre-Dame is burning: a high-quality VR experience arousing a lot of emotion”

"Our connection with Notre-Dame does not date from the fire, but from the release of our video game "Assassin's Creed Unity" on the French Revolution in 2014. With "Assassin's Creed Unity" - the series of historical video games sold worldwide with tens of millions of players - we recreate immersive worlds with the help of historians, geographers, sociologists... We focus on reconstructing daily life, everything that makes the player engaged in history. Among our main characters is Notre-Dame de Paris through a 3D representation that is not 100% accurate but as faithful as possible, which required 5000 hours of graphics based on plans, on-site visits... So much so that these 3D images of the cathedral from the game were widely shared on social networks and then picked up by newspapers and channels the day after the fire. Ubisoft contributed financially to the reconstruction, but we also made the game Assassin's Creed available to gamers for free. We had to go further: the idea came to make it an immersion in virtual reality. A five-minute experience in the cathedral thanks to a VR headset. We are teleported to ten different viewpoints and we even end with a balloon ride above the cathedral. This project was set up very quickly, six months after the fire when we still didn't know if the cathedral would stand. "Notre-Dame de Paris, voyage dans le passé" is a very high-quality experience for a wide audience. It was seen everywhere with a lot of emotion. Finally, we put it on the VR stores for free and then it was integrated into the exhibition in the Archaeological Crypt of Notre-Dame and in the network of micro-folies, these digital museums (400 on French territory) of the Ministry of Culture. The adventure continued with Jean Jacques Annaud who was preparing his film "Notre-Dame brûle". He wanted us to make a video game, which would have taken four years of work. I suggested instead that we make an "escape game" whose goal would be to save Notre Dame in one hour. A close collaboration began with him and his teams: he shared the film's script with us, he invited my team to the shoots so that they could immerse themselves in the emotion of Notre-Dame, he also introduced us to the firefighters who were on the fire so that our experience would be as realistic as possible. The "Notre-Dame is burning" escape game is now operated in around 700 theaters around the world."

Morgan Boucher, Global Head Metaverse x XR x web3 at Orange: “Éternelle Notre-Dame: the key axis was to respect historical accuracy”

“Our story with Notre-Dame is an incredible adventure. The day after the fire, the whole world was moved. There was a surge of solidarity to help with the reconstruction, which we contributed financially to. But Orange wanted to contribute to this emotion by providing something that could be useful in the short term: virtually reopening this emblematic place so that people could continue to visit it. The development of this immersive augmented reality tour project with various French partners took two years. We then came up with an economic model in which visitors contribute 30% of the ticket price to the restoration. The challenge was to strike a balance between the cultural and historical dimensions, with a way to welcome the general public in the best possible way. The key was to respect historical accuracy. The question of grammar and interaction was central: to help us design the experience well, the Diocese teams, including two historians, supported us in writing the script. Little by little, we refined the message, with a contemplative dimension, another historical one, in an entertaining and family format. The 45-minute experience was first shown at La Défense, while the 1000 m² space under the forecourt of Notre-Dame, which can accommodate around a hundred visitors, was accessible in January 2023. Today, it's 100 people per hour, families, French and foreign tourists, schools. We are struck by how the public, especially young people, are adhering to it. The experience is now also in Taiwan, soon in North America, in Asia, so we feel an appetite from all over the world for this emblematic place. Emotion has been the common thread during these two years of development.

Bruno de Sa Moreira, CEO and co-founder of Histovery: “Notre Dame de Paris in augmented reality: this visit is also a presentation of know-how”

"At Histovery, we were in discussions in 2019 with the Notre-Dame de Paris teams to design an augmented tour in the same format as what exists at the Château de Chambord, at the Conciergerie... Following the fire, the idea came to explore a new format: a traveling exhibition that could travel and allow people to relive the history of the cathedral. The project was thus born, "Notre Dame de Paris in augmented reality", made possible thanks to the L'Oréal group which financed its development and international career. A third is dedicated to visits to the reconstruction sites affecting all trades and know-how and allowing visitors to see the high construction at work. The visitor travels through 850 years of history, from its construction in the Middle Ages, to today and tomorrow, its reconstruction. The first difficulty was the number of experts to bring together in order to cover the extent of the historical field, i.e. a scientific committee of around forty people. The 3D production was then very important so that the visitor could have access to this pharaonic construction site of the time and also have the possibility of a personal journey that he chooses himself since the visit is interactive. Moreover, to see everything, you would have to spend an entire day there... This is one of the keys to the success of the project: you can come with your family, with children, grandparents, or with friends, and everyone can compose their own visit and then talk about it. A moment of living culture and a deeply documented, solid, serious and instructive experience that is particularly aimed at the education sector. The project was first shown in 2021, in Dubai, in the France pavilion of the Universal Exhibition. We were then struck by the diversity of the audiences. Today the exhibition has traveled to seven cities (including Paris, Montreal and Mexico) and the project is to go to up to 15 cities until December 2024 with emblematic places like Westminster Abbey and the National Palace Museum in Seoul. Finally, you should know that in each exhibition we make updates to tell where the construction site is at. This is an important part. Visitors are amazed to see that all these medieval trades are returning to Notre Dame. We saw it in Dubai with the example of the rope access technician who makes children dream. This visit is also a presentation of the trades and know-how of companies that come from all over the world to rebuild the monument.

Relive the We Are French Touch event 2023 edition

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