France pays tribute to General Georgelin, who led reconstruction of Notre-Dame

French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday bid farewell to General Jean-Louis Georgelin – a career soldier who supervised the Notre-Dame Cathedral reconstruction – during a ceremony at Les Invalides in Paris.

French President Emmanuel Macron attends a national hommage to Jean-Louis Georgelin, a former army chief in charge of restoring Paris's emblematic Notre-Dame cathedral, at the Hotel des Invalides in Paris, on 25 August 2023. AFP - CHRISTIAN HARTMANN

Georgelin died last week in a hiking accident in the Pyrenees at the age of 74.

The Archbishop of Paris paid homage to "a servant of France, of the state and of the church", during a mass that took place ahead of an official ceremony also attended by Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne.

The tribute in the Saint-Louis des Invalides cathedral included a performance of the Marseillaise by the French Army Choir as well as Chopin's Funeral March.

The former Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces had been chosen by Macron in 2020 to oversee the reconstruction of Notre-Dame, which was badly damaged in a fire in 2019.

• French ex-army chief in charge of Notre-Dame rebuild dies

French President Emmanuel Macron, French Armies Minister Sebastien Lecornu and French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne attends a National hommage to Jean-Louis Georgelin, a former French army chief in charge of restoring Paris's emblematic Notre-Dame cathedral, at the Hotel des Invalides in Paris, on 25 August 2023. AFP - BERTRAND GUAY

'Exceptional' loyalty 

In a short speech, Macron lauded Georgelin's "exceptional" qualities in diplomacy, loyalty and sense of service.

"General General Georgelin expresses only one thing: the will to serve," he added.

Earlier Macron wrote on social media that Notre-Dame had lost "the overseer of its rebirth" and that France had lost  "one of its great servants".

The church is one of the French capital's most famous landmarks.

Georgelin had promised Notre-Dame's new spire would be completed by the end of the year.

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo praised Georgelin for creating "the human and organisational conditions for successfully completing the reconstruction of Notre-Dame".

Jean-Louis Georgelin, former chief of staff of the armies, CEO of the Public Establishment in charge of the conservation and restoration of Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral, in Paris on 11 July 2023. AFP - STEFANO RELLANDINI

A funeral for Georgelin, who died Friday during a fall while hiking alone on the slopes of Mont-Valier, in the Pyrenees, will be held on 31 August in his native village of Aspet, in Haute-Garonne.

A five-star general, Georgelin was the French army's chief-of-staff between 2006 and 2010, and supervised operations in Cote d'Ivoire, Afghanistan, the Balkans and Lebanon.

A practising Catholic, his motto was "move forward without procrastinating".