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PARIS

VIDEO: Why you need to visit Paris’ new bubble museum

If you're searching for a day out with a difference, check out Paris' new Bubble Museum - a combination of interactive art exhibition and ball pool which focuses on inflatables.

VIDEO: Why you need to visit Paris' new bubble museum
Photo: AFP

Children and adults alike can bathe in the bubbles and balloons, check out the inflatable art exhibits and create their own ‘art’ by getting up close and personal with the items.

Creator Francesco Dobovich told AFP that the idea had come about from the difficulties of the past two years, when many forms of socialising were no longer possible.

He said: “The idea was to help people socialise in a new way, through art.

‘Through the balloon museum we want to make people happy and want to be creators of happiness.”

The Pop Air exhibition is at the Grade Halle at Parc de la Villette in Paris’ 19th arrondisement and runs until August 21st.

Full details here.

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PARIS

Notre-Dame rebuild ‘meeting deadline and budget’

Paris's Notre-Dame Cathedral, ravaged by fire in 2019, is on track to re-open on time on December 8th, the head of the reconstruction said on Wednesday.

Notre-Dame rebuild 'meeting deadline and budget'

“We are meeting deadlines and budget,” Philippe Jost, who heads the public body overseeing the project, told a French Senate committee.

The fire at the UNESCO-listed cathedral, which welcomed 12 million visitors a year, shocked the world on April 15, 2019.

Jost praised the work of the 250 companies and artist groups involved in the reconstruction, which began in spring 2022 after rubble had been cleared and the foundations secured at a cost of €150 million.

He said the budget for the reconstruction phase was expected to stay below the foreseen €550 million, leaving another €150 million unspent from the huge pot of donations that poured in after the fire.

The surplus will go towards “urgent” restoration of the cathedral’s stone exterior to be carried out from 2025, Jost said.

The spire, which dramatically collapsed five years ago, is once again visible on the Paris skyline following the recent removal of its scaffolding.

The installation of the lead roof is ongoing on its solid oak frame, rebuilt with doweled wood and no metal bolts according to techniques dating back hundreds of years.

“The restoration will last for at least 860 years,” said Jost, referring to how long the cathedral had survived from its initial completion in 1163.

In addition to sprinkler systems, each section of the wooden frame has been “compartmentalised” to prevent any future fire from spreading, Jost said.

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