Les Journées du Patrimoine - France

European Heritage Days (EHD) is a joint action of the Council of Europe and the European Commission. Every year for a weekend in September (in 2011 in France it was 17th - 18th September), you can take the opportunity to visit (for free !) buildings, monuments and sites, many of which are not normally open to the public.  The aim of the European Heritage Days programme is to increase public awareness of the importance of heritage, and to awaken the interest of young Europeans in their common history. The event now takes place in 50 countries from the Baltic to the Balkans, from Iceland to the Iberian Peninsular and gives Europeans a chance to explore both their own heritage and also that of their neighbours if they happen to be visiting another country.

The event began in France in 1984, with La Journée Portes Ouvertes, and has now spread throughout Europe.  In France it is now known as Les Journées européennes du patrimoine and in the UK we have come to know this event as either :

• English Heritage’s Heritage Open Days,
• Open House London,
• Doors Open Days in Scotland,
• Open Doors Days in Wales, and,
• European Heritage Days in Northern Ireland.

It is a fantastic chance to see into all sorts of building and to find out first hand what happens there. For example this past weekend in Paris, 12,000 people took the chance to pay a visit to the Sarkozy's residence at the Elysee Palace !
In total, there were over 12,000,000 visitors to all sorts of buildings around France. The website will show you what you can visit in a particular region : http://www.journeesdupatrimoine.culture.fr/  In Brittany, for example, you could visit abbeys, chateaux, chapels, churches, forts, museums, manors, gardens and semaphore stations, in fact in total there were 611 open doors events in Brittany this year !

There has also been a new category added this year, with the Announcement by Frédéric Miterrand, the French Minister of Culture and Communication, that certain houses would be recognised as "Maisons des Illustres". These are houses where famous people have lived and you can find a list of the 111 houses on this website : http://www.culture.fr/fr/sections/themes/maisonsdesillustres/articles/111-maisons-illustres
They include the houses of  :

• Louis Pasteur (scientist) in Franche Comté
• Pierre-Auguste Renoir (painter) in Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur
• Jules Verne in Picardy
• Pierre-Auguste Renoir (painter) -Atelier de Renoir - Essoyes
• Victor Hugo (writer) in Upper Normandy
• Napoléon Bonaparte - Maison Bonaparte - Ajaccio
• Louis Braille (inventor of Braille) - Maison Louis Braille - Coupvray, Ile de France
• Charles de Gaulle in Nord-Pas de Calais
• the Champollion family house in Figeac, Midi-Pyrénées, (Champollion translated the Rosetta Stone which led to the understanding of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs) 

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World Heritage Sites in France

Here is a list of all the World Heritage Sites in France as listed by UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.  Currently, thirty-seven properties in France are inscribed on the World Heritage List. Thirty-three of these are cultural properties, three are natural properties, and one is mixed.

These are the ones currently listed and I have put the Region afterwards so you can see if you are going to be holidaying nearby.
Have you been to see any of these and what are your memories of them - which ones would you recommend to other holidaymakers ?

1 Abbey Church of Saint-Savin-sur-Gartempe, a 9th Century Church with 11th and 12th Century murals in Poitou-Charentes

2 Cistercian Abbey of Fontenay, a 12th Century Abbey in Burgundy

Pont du Gard, Nimes

3 Arles, Roman and Romanesque Monuments in Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur

4 Vézelay, 12th Century Church and Hill in Burgundy Bourgogne

5 A 13th Century - 20th Century transboundary property in Belfries of Belgium and France Nord-Pas-de-Calais, Picardy

6 Bordeaux, Port of the Moon - Aquitaine

7 Canal du Midi (17th Century) in Languedoc-Roussillon, Midi-Pyrénées  (for more information about the Canal du Midi plane trees and a fungus that is threatening them see http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jul/27/french-axe-thousands-plane-trees)

8 Amiens Cathedral, 13th Century in Picardy

Mont St Michel

9 Bourges Cathedral in Centre 13th Century

10 Chartres Cathedral in Centre 13th Century

11 Cathedral of Notre-Dame, Abbey of Saint-Remi, & Palace of Tau, Reims Champagne-Ardenne 13th Century - 16th Century

12 The Causses and Cévennes, Midi-Pyrénées, Languedoc-Roussillon

13 Historical center of Avignon : Papal Palace & Avignon Bridge in Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur 12th century - 16th century

14 Routes of Santiago de Compostela in France
15 Episcopal City of Albi in Midi-Pyrénées

16 18th Century Royal Saltworks of Arc-et-Senans Franche-Comté

17 17th Century Fortifications of Vauban

18 Jurisdiction of Saint-Émilion, Aquitaine

19 Le Havre, the City rebuilt by Auguste Perret Haute-Normandie 20th Century

20 Mont Saint Michel and its Bay, Basse-Normandie

21 Palace and Park of Fontainebleau, Île-de-France

22 Palace and Park of Versailles, Île-de-France

23 Paris, Banks of the Seine, Île-de-France

24 Place Stanislas, Place de la Carrière, and Place d'Alliance in Nancy, Lorraine

25 Pont du Gard, 1st Century Roman Aqueduct in Languedoc-Roussillon

26 Provins, Town of Medieval Fairs, Île-de-France 

27 Historic Old Town center of Lyon, Rhône-Alpes

28 Prehistoric Pile dwellings around the Alps transboundary property, shared with Austria, Germany, Italy, Slovenia and Switzerland

29 Prehistoric Sites and Decorated Caves of the Vézère Valley, Aquitaine

30 Strasbourg – Grande Île, Alsace

31 Roman Theatre and its Surroundings and the "Triumphal Arch" of Orange, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur

32 The Loire Valley between Sully-sur-Loire and Chalonnes-sur-Loire Centre, Pays-de-la-Loire

33 Cité de Carcassonne – historic Fortified City of Carcassonne, Languedoc-Roussillon

34 Gulf of Porto: Calanche of Piana, Gulf of Girolata, Scandola Reserve, Corsica Corse

35 Lagoons of New Caledonia Nouvelle-Calédonie in New Caledonia Barrier Reef

36 The Pitons, Cirques and Remparts of Réunion, La Réunion

37 Pyrénées: Mont Perdu Midi-Pyrénées, transboundary property, shared with Spain

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