It's now been a year since Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris was reopened with great ceremony. It is cleaner, smoother and brighter than it has been for many centuries.
The Parisian landmark has been attracting crowds ever since, even more magnetically than before the devastating fire in 2019.
The cathedral administration has counted more than eleven million visitors in the twelve months since the ceremony on 7 December 2024, which will probably go down in the category of "great history".
The ceremonies a year ago provided so many impressive images: how Archbishop Laurent Ulrich stood in front of the main portal in the rain and storm on Saturday evening and knocked with an oversized crosier worthy of Gandalf to push open the doors that had been closed for over five years.
The breathtaking tracking shots through the bright, seemingly endless and immaculate church.
The clownishly colourful liturgical design vestments of the celebrants. The touching thanks to the firefighters and craftsmen. Finally, the consecration of the new bronze altar by the archbishop - with a whole lot of consecrated chrism oil.
Macron's Oder flood
But one thing failed to materialise at this pompously and meticulously planned giant event: President Emmanuel Macron 's meeting with the history books.
When Notre-Dame burned down in April 2019 and the Grande Nation fell into a state of shock, it seemed for the hapless president like the Oder flood in 2002 for Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, who had almost been voted out of office: the tide was turning.
It was a fiercely determined father of the nation who stepped forward and announced that Notre-Dame would be resurrected in five years' time, more beautiful and magnificent than ever before!
And Macron kept at it, pushing on through his building commissioner, General Jean-Louis Georgelin, who died in an accident in August 2023. And they almost, almost stayed on the insane schedule. 60 heads of state and government finally gathered for the reopening - but it was one too many.
Was it Macron's vanity to want to present Donald Trump, who had just been re-elected US President, as the first European at his side? He didn't have to do it. After all, Trump was still a convicted felon with no political office at the time.
In any case, Trump's physical conspicuousness, his typical Trump face and his bright yellow tie alone ensured that Macron - at his greatest moment ever - looked very small, almost inconspicuous next to him.
France's kilometre zero
A lot has happened in world politics since then: Macron can no longer get a leg up with the French; Trump is turning the world and virtually every news programme upside down - but Notre-Dame is what it always was and should be again: the central point, kilometre zero of an entire country.
All other places in France are measured as the distance from this point.
Since the reopening, 30,000 to 35,000 visitors have come every day, 650 pilgrimages, almost 600 heads of state and official delegations. There have been 1,600 religious celebrations and services. A team of 9 clergymen, 45 employees and 310 volunteers endeavoured to find a calm balance between the strictly regulated flow of tourists and the spiritual needs of the place of worship.
In June, 16 19th-century copper statues also returned to the tower base on the façade; the tower scaffolding disappeared. And yet work continues in and around the cathedral. This includes the sacristy, several chapels and the façades.
According to the authorities, around 140 million euros are still needed to finally complete the comprehensive restoration of the monument. Also new these days: the weekly exhibition of Christ's crown of thorns, a relic that has been venerated in Paris since 1239 - in future every Friday afternoon from 3.00 pm.
All too fast!
So far, all seems well, everything seems to be on track. If only there wasn't this murmur; this warning from experts behind closed doors: It's all happened far too quickly! The oak wood for the roof truss is far from being seasoned enough to withstand centuries without warping.
And the plaster was applied too quickly to prevent it from cracking over time and possibly falling off again in the not too distant future.
"Turlututu!" is what the French say when they hear nonsense; in German: "papperlapapp!" - "Turlututu!" is what Emmanuel Macron would probably say if he were asked about such worries.
After all, it's not that far yet. His cathedral is still finished.