For many yellow vest protesters, the stinging sadness that came with the devastating fire at Notre Dame Cathedral has quickly given way to boiling anger.

Some of the activists, whose violent protests against inequality have been shaking up France for months, said they cried in front of their TV sets as they watched the Gothic architectural masterpiece being consumed by flames Monday night.

Nearly $1 billion has already poured in from ordinary worshippers and high-powered magnates around the world to restore Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris after a massive fire.

Construction teams brought in a huge crane and a delivery of planks of wood to the site Wednesday morning.

Nations expressed solidarity with France after the fire at the Notre Dame Cathedral and offered their support for the recovery.

Monday's fire collapsed the spire and burned through the roof of the 12th-century building, sparking an outpouring grief and reminiscing of visits to the Parisian landmark. President Donald Trump called the cathedral "one of the great treasures of the world." Pope Francis, Japanese Prime Minster Shinzo Abe, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite, Denmark Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen and Norway's Erna Solberg all expressed their sadness.

French President Emmanuel Macron has vowed to rebuild Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, after a colossal fire tore through the building, sending the spire crashing to the ground and wiping out centuries of heritage.

Jean-Marie Le Pen, the father of France's far-right, will bid farewell to the European Parliament on Tuesday after 35 years of using it as a platform to bash European integration and immigration.

A fire swept across the top of the Notre Dame Cathedral while the soaring Paris landmark was under renovations Monday, collapsing its spire and threatening one of the world's greatest architectural treasures as locals and tourists watched aghast from the streets.

The French president pledged to rebuild a cathedral that he called "a part of us" and appealed for help to do so. The 12th-century church is home to relics, stained glass and other incalculable works of art and is a leading tourist attraction, immortalized by Victor Hugo's 1831 novel "The Hunchback of Notre Dame."

French President Emmanuel Macron was to set out a series of major policy announcements Monday in response to five months of nationwide "yellow vest" protests, in what has been billed as a make-or-break moment for his presidency.

French leader Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday urged his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani to avoid an escalation of tensions after Washington blacklisted Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organisation.

The French government must implement bold tax cuts, the prime minister said Monday, after a mass public consultation called in the wake of "yellow vest" protests that shook President Emmanuel Macron.

Over three months, France's "Great National Debate" has led to 10,000 local meetings, around two million online contributions and 100 hours of presidential talking. On Monday, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe begins trying to make sense of it all.