Notre Dame rebuilding starts hunt for skilled experts

Are you good with your hands? Know how to swing a hammer? Paris might be the place for you.
Specifically, the groups seeking to rebuild Notre Dame cathedral after its 2019 blaze are looking for people with building skills, organizers announced on Friday.
"I'm calling on tradespeople and companies with knowledge about preserving monuments to mobilize and to apply to be part of the team of builders who will work with enthusiasm and dedication to get the cathedral reopened for services and visitors by 2024, as the president has called for," said Jean-Louis Georgelin, who will be leading the project, as he began a call for bids.
A fire that broke out on April 15, 2019, quickly spread to the cathedral's roof and caused significant damage to the entire structure, which is one of Paris' best-known landmarks.
The cause of the blaze remains unknown. It could have been a problem with the electrical system or a cigarette that was not properly extinguished.
Restoring the church has become a major mission for both the city and, indeed, all of France. President Emmanuel Macron vowed it would be rebuilt shortly after the fires were put out.
In order to get the most skilled workers involved in the project, the work will be split into about 100 tasks of different magnitudes. It's hoped this approach will allow craftspeople or independent firms to take on specific parts of the rebuilding work so they can best apply their expertise to reconstruction, said Georgelin.
"The restoration of the spire and the northern and southern naves, as well as the completion of the interior restoration, two symbolic parts of the restoration project, require a high degree of technical knowledge in the areas of carpentry, lead roofing and scaffolding, but also in the restoration of dressed stone and masonry, joinery, painting, gold leaf and smithwork, but also the restoration of glass windows and sculptures," he said.
There has yet to be a precise estimate of how much the project will cost. About 840 million euros (971.5 million dollars) has been donated towards the rebuilding.