May 9, 2019
The master craftsmen tasked with repairing Notre Dame
The specialist skills have been passed down from generation to generation.

Apprentice Enzo Degouet learns old metal roofing skills.
John Laurenson for Marketplace
French President Emmanuel Macron has said that Notre Dame Cathedral, ravaged by fire, will be rebuilt in five years. To do so, France will rely on master craftsmen called “companions,” whose apprenticeship system in carpentry or roof tiling, for example, stretches back to the building of the European cathedrals in the Middle Ages. How do they keep the old skills alive?