(Reuters) – U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Monday said he will travel to Paris on Saturday to attend the reopening of the Notre-Dame Cathedral, which was gutted by fire over five years ago, in his first foreign trip since winning the election.
The Gothic masterpiece, one of the French capital’s most beloved and visited monuments, will reopen its doors later this week to tourists and the Catholic faithful.
Major reconstruction works have restored the 12th-century cathedral, its spire, rib vaulting, flying buttresses, stained-glass windows and carved stone gargoyles to their past glory, with the white stone and gold decorations shining brighter than ever.
Trump, who won the Nov. 5 election and is due to take office on Jan. 20, praised the government of French President Emmanuel Macron in a post on his social-media platform Truth Social on Monday.
“President Emmanuel Macron has done a wonderful job ensuring that Notre Dame has been restored to its full level of glory, and even more so. It will be a very special day for all!” he wrote.
(Reporting by Costas Pitas; Editing by Katharine Jackson and Chris Reese)
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