19-8-2023 (PARIS) General Jean-Louis Georgelin, the former French army chief tasked with overseeing the restoration of Paris’s iconic Notre-Dame cathedral following a devastating fire in 2019, has passed away while hiking in the Pyrenees mountain range, according to prosecutors who informed AFP on Saturday (August 19).
General Georgelin, aged 74, lost his life on Friday in the Pyrenees, which straddle the border between France and Spain. The prosecutor’s office in the southern French city of Foix confirmed his passing.
A mountain rescue team dispatched to the Mont-Valier peak “discovered the body of a man who has been formally identified as General Georgelin,” stated a spokesperson, noting that an accident was the likely cause.
President Emmanuel Macron expressed his condolences on Twitter, referring to Notre Dame’s loss as “the overseer of its rebirth” and France’s loss of “one of its great servants.”
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo also paid tribute to Georgelin on social media, recognizing his role in creating “the human and organizational conditions necessary for the successful completion of the Notre-Dame reconstruction.”
General Georgelin, a five-star general who served as the French army’s chief-of-staff from 2006 to 2010, oversaw military operations in Ivory Coast, Afghanistan, the Balkans, and Lebanon during his career.
In 2020, President Macron appointed him to lead the intricate and costly reconstruction efforts at Notre-Dame. The cathedral, one of Paris’s most iconic landmarks, was ravaged by a fire that shocked the world the previous year.
General Georgelin, a devout Catholic whose motto was “move forward without procrastinating,” stated that Notre Dame’s new spire would be completed by the end of the year.
