In what was once a royal forest, 250 kilometres southwest of Paris, grows a tract of centuries-old trees. They’re straight, they’re solid and they’re going to go down — or, rather, up — in history. They’ll soon become the new roof and spire elements of the parts of the Notre Dame cathedral that went up in flames in 2019.
In La Fôret de Bercé this week, tree surgeons began felling a handful of its best white oaks. Step by step, a woodsman would spike his way up a trunk, cut off each tree’s unwanted branches, then spike his way back down so the crew could cut down the remaining trunk. Each mast-like pole will now be cured for 18 months before being hewn and hoisted to the topmost heights of the 18th-century landmark.
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