Towers of Notre-Dame Cathedral to reopen after six years

The iconic towers of the Notre-Dame Cathedral will reopen to the public from Sept. 20, more than six years after the Parisian landmark was ravaged by a blaze, the French Center for National Monuments announced in a press release on Tuesday.

According to the press release, starting from Sept. 20, visitors to the famed edifice will be allowed to climb the more than 420 steps up to the viewing platform and enjoy a panoramic view of the French capital from a height of 69 meters.

The visitors will also be able to get a close-up view of the medieval cathedral, after the catastrophic fire caused extensive damage to the centuries-old church in April 2019.

Tourists will be required to book tickets online in advance and the number of visitors to the cathedral's towers are capped at 400,000 per year.

The main structure of the Notre-Dame Cathedral reopened to tourists on Dec. 8 last year as restoration efforts continued.

All restoration work on the cathedral is expected to complete around 2030.

China's outstanding aggregate social financing -- the total amount of financing to the real economy -- reached 442.12 trillion yuan (about 63.4 trillion U.S. dollars) as of the end of 2025, up 8.3 percent year on year, central bank data showed on Thursday.

The country's aggregate social financing stood at 35.6 trillion yuan (about 5.1 trillion U.S. dollars) in 2025, up by 3.34 trillion yuan (about 479 billion U.S. dollars) from the year 2024, said the People's Bank of China (PBOC), the country's central bank.

According to the data, the M2, a broad measure of money supply that covers cash in circulation and all deposits, increased 8.5 percent year on year to 340.29 trillion yuan (about 48.8 trillion U.S. dollars) as of the end of December.

In addition, outstanding yuan loans stood at 271.91 trillion yuan (about 39 trillion U.S. dollars) at the end of 2025, up 6.4 percent year on year.