During months of heated debate, French President Emmanuel Macron had supported a contemporary design for the reconstruction of the 850-year-old cathedral following a damaging fire last year, but on Thursday, he made a U-turn and is now backing the restoration of the spire to exactly how it was
"The President of the Republic has become convinced of the need to restore Notre Dame de Paris in the most consistent manner possible to its last complete, coherent and known state," It added that the President had "placed his trust in the expertise" of the country's National Heritage and Architecture Commission to make the right restoration decisions for the world-famous cathedral, which had already been restored in the 19th century.
