‘We want it to come alive’: architect’s plan to transform Notre Dame area

Bas Smets’ project, featuring trees and a cooling system, aims to create a more pedestrian-friendly space around Paris landmarkFor most of the last year, the Belgian landscape architect Bas Smets could be found walking purposefully around the Île de la Cité in central Paris staring at and thinking about Notre Dame Cathedral.On a blazing hot day in the French capital he is back there, pointing at the landmark, still shrouded in scaffolding after it was ravaged by a devastating