'Open your doors': Paris unveils Notre-Dame after five-year refit

Archbishop of Paris, Laurent Ulrich, knocks on the door of Notre-Dame Cathedral during a ceremony to mark the re-opening of the landmark Cathedral, in central Paris, on December 7, 2024. AFP - CHRISTOPHE PETIT TESSON

Paris (AFP) – France celebrated the re-opening of the newly restored Notre-Dame cathedral on Saturday at a special church service that featured a standing ovation for the firefighters who saved the 12th-century landmark during a 2019 blaze.

A two-hour service attended by incoming US president Donald Trump among other world leaders began with the archbishop of Paris knocking on the doors of the cathedral three times.