Around 200,000 bees living in hives kept on top of a sacristry that adjoins the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris have miraculously escaped the blaze that ravaged the historic landmark, their beekeeper said on Thursday.

"The bees are alive. Until this morning, I had had no news," beekeeper Nicolas Geant told AFP.

"At first I thought that the three hives had burned but I had no information after Monday's fire," he added.

"Then I saw from satellite images that this was not the case and then the cathedral spokesman told me that they were going in and out of the hives."