Jean-Louis Georgelain has been appointed by the French president to oversee the rebuilding of the Notre Dame de Paris cathedral, which was damaged by a massive fire in 2019.
Photo: REUTERS
The body of the former chief of staff of the French army, General Jean-Louis Georgelain, was found in the Pyrenees.
The 74-year-old retired general was once appointed by the French president to oversee the rebuilding of the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris, which suffered a massive fire in 2019, which is one of the symbols of the French capital.
So far, it is only known that Georgelin went to the mountains as part of a group of climbers and stopped communicating on Friday. After he failed to return to camp, a search was launched for him.
As a result, Georgelain was found dead in a crevasse on Valle Mountain, not far from Faustin Pass.
French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted that “with the death of the general, the nation has lost one of its great soldiers, France one of its great servants and Notre Dame the main steward of its rebirth.”
So far, Georgelen’s death is being treated as an accident. However, various versions of what happened are heard in the French media and social networks: the general could have been assassinated as revenge for the “exploits” of the army units he commanded at various times in Algeria, the former Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Ivory Coast. In addition, some do not rule out that Georgelin has learned the details of the corruption schemes used in the reconstruction of Notre Dame.
After the fire, Macron promised that the cathedral would be rebuilt in five years. In 2019, this was considered by many to be an overly optimistic forecast, given that the fire caused massive damage to Notre Dame.
The conflict that broke out between Georgelain and the chief architect of the cathedral’s reconstruction project, Philippe Villeneuve, is also known. Villeneuve believed that the cathedral’s burned-out spire could be replaced not with an exact copy, but with a more modern alternative. The general then publicly suggested to Villeneuve to “shut the fuck up”.
