‘A 4-Million-Euro Whim’: Notre Dame Cathedral’s new stained glass

Solène Tadié, National Catholic Register

Thursday, December 25, 2025

French painter Claire Tabouret was commissioned by President Emmanuel Macron to create six contemporary windows to replace intact 19th-century stained glass designed by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc for the south aisle chapels of the nave. Stéphane Bern, one of France’s most prominent defenders of historic heritage, has described the project, since its beginning, as the result of a presidential “whim.” Historian Éric Anceau denounced the commission of the new windows as an unacceptable fait du prince, warning that the Viollet-le-Duc windows, which had “miraculously resisted the [2019] fire,” were being removed in defiance of the French Heritage Code.