France celebrates heritage days despite Covid disruptions

The two-day cultural programme offers people in France the opportunity to access interesting sites around the country that are usually closed to the public.

There are events held in castles, theatres, old department stores, exotic gardens etc.

A full list of sites that are participating this year can be found on the culture ministry’s website here.

However, certain departments have cancelled their events over coronavirus concerns, including Nice, the departments of Bouches-du-Rhône, Bordeaux, Saint-Etienne, Montpellier and others.

You can find more details on the cancellations here.

This weekend marks the 37th edition of the event and the theme is ‘heritage and education: learning for life’. Over 5,000 events are listed in the programme.

Minister for culture Roselyne Bachelot-Narquin said she hoped the days would be a “monumental pleasure for everyone”.

As part of the programme, the Ministère de la Culture has made a video tour of the renovation work being carried out on Notre Dame cathedral in Paris. You can watch the video here.

The first journées du patrimoine were held on September 23 1984.

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Thousands of Heritage Days events cancelled across France