the bell of the Olympic Games joins the historic bells of the cathedral

The bell which rang this summer with each new record of the Olympic Games has now joined “its little sisters” Chiara and Carlo, in the stand of Notre-Dame de Paris where they will ring during the services, during the consecration of the bread and the wine .

“What a wonderful second life for this bell,” enthused Tony Estanguet, president of the Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games, on the square, on November 7, 2024, one month before the reopening of the cathedral. Indeed, the Olympics were placed under the sign of sustainability.

On a symbolic level, they also had to “magnify the heritage of Paris and in particular Notre-Dame highlighted from the second painting of the opening ceremony” he recalled. So, the idea germinated from the beginning to make a bell two uses, and the Cornille Avard foundry, in Villedieu-les-poêles, in Manche, which had already cast the new bells of Notre-Dame in 2013 then cleaned and restored them after the 2019 fire, put the Olympic preparation committee in contact with the diocese of Paris.

The latter willingly accepted this donation: “The Olympic and Paralympic Games celebrated the unity of nations, peace between peoples, fraternity beyond differences, victories and defeats; the reopening of Notre-Dame will celebrate the same values, compared Mgr Ribadeau Dumas, rector of Notre-Dame de Paris. Not to mention the respect, friendship and joy expressed during these two events.

These three bells will be installed in the gallery (and not in the spire as before the fire) where they will ring at the time of the consecration of the bread and wine. “So, at each mass, I would have a thought for the Olympic athletes” smiles Mgr Ribadeau Dumas.

The rector carried out a short blessing of the three bells, on the square, in front of a crowd of journalists but also onlookers impressed to attend this ceremony, offering a foretaste of the reopening celebrations, in just a month.

Already in September, Mgr Ribadeau Dumas had blessed the nine bells which returned to Notre-Dame before they were reassembled in their belfry.