Lauren Aratani reports for The Guardian
Three hives containing more than 180,000 bees in total were found intact on the cathedral’s roof despite the devastating blaze
Following the tragedy of Monday’s fire at the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, news came on Friday of a miracle as sweet as honey.
The hundreds of thousands of bees that lived in hives inside Notre Dame’s roof are alive and well, according to the beekeeper, or apiculteur, that oversees them.
“Thank goodness the flames didn’t touch them,” Nicolas Géant, the hives’ 51-year-old beekeeper, told CNN. “It’s a miracle.”
Three hives that are home to an estimated 60,000 bees each – 180,000 bees in total – are located on a lower roof atop the cathedral’s first floor.
The flames of Monday’s fire – which investigators say was probably causedby an electrical short circuit – took down the cathedral’s spire and a large portion of its roof.
For a few days after the fire, Géant was worried about his beloved bees, and the French police and firefighters wouldn’t let him go up on the roof to check on them. Hopes that the bees survived rested on aerial photos of the cathedral’s roof, which showed the hives still intact.
“You see that everything is burnt, there are holes in the roof, but you can still see the three beehives,” Géant told NBC News on Wednesday.
On Thursday, the French urban beekeeping company Beeopic Apiculture posted a picture on Instagram that confirmed the Notre Dame bees were OK
