At the beginning of November, site workers, residents and passers-by were able to hear the bells of the North Belfry ring as part of technical tests: one of the last operations carried out by the site’s bellmakers.
The eight bells of the North Belfry, which will be installed in July 2023, have been cleaned and two of them restored by the workshops of Cornille Harvard (Manche).
During the few months that the bells were absent, the lightening of the structure allowed the carpenters of Perrault (Maine-et-Loire), the contractor, and Métier du Bois (Calvados), the subcontractor, to remove the beams damaged by the flames and replace them with grafts, using complex assemblies or “entures”. In order to allow the carpenters to work on the lower part of the bell tower, an exceptional operation was carried out. With the help of jacks and a steel reinforcement structure, the massive 190-ton wooden structure, 25 meters high, was raised by 30 cm.
Once restored in Paris, the bells were blessed on the square of the cathedral on September 12.
Lifting the bells through the belfry was a tricky operation for the bellmakers, as the bells had to pass through a series of 4 traps, not exactly aligned, before being installed in their final position. The bells were then fitted with their own yoke, the piece of wood that supports them and is driven by a motor to make them ring. Finally, the clapper inside the bell is the last element to be installed.
