It gives me a cheap thrill to think that you’d start reading this article in order to discover—with admiration or contempt—which towns and cities in France limit their cooperation with the national government in enforcing immigration laws. You might be imaging a bistro where lawless lefties confront national thugs. Or a wine region where baguette-wielding winegrowers are protecting grape-picking Syrians and Somalis against soldiers in riot gear. Would you then be inclined to visit such a place? Or would you immediately despise it?

How exciting to think that a travel article of mine could be read with admiration or contempt. But at the risk of disappointing anyone, and of ruining my chances of this piece launching a lengthy Reddit thread, let’s have another look at that title.

Villes Sanctuaires en France, the network in question, translates as Sanctuary Cities in France. The words align. But the concept does not. There are no trumped-up stand-offs in these towns and cities. French authorities have indeed stepped up operations to net undocumented migrants and would-be immigrants who’ve overstayed their visa, including a few gently reminded post-Brexit Brits. But round-ups, deportation and resistance are unlikely to occur in the peaceable destinations in France’s Villes Sanctuaires network. What makes them like-minded is a different kind of sanctuary.

Here, sanctuaire refers to a sanctuary in the sense of a shrine, “a place in which devotion is paid to a saint or deity,” to quote Merriam-Webster. Villes Sanctuaires en France therefore brings together villages, towns and cities in France that have shrines—Catholic, at that—that can be visited by the general public.

But wait, wait!

Before clicking away because candle-lighting pilgrims are less Instagrammable than baguette-wielding winegrowers, let me tell you one of my favorite aspects of travel in the secular nation in France: You can just as easily visit these sanctuaries and shrines for the heck, the fun, or the creepiness of it—I do—as you can out of a sense of spirituality, hope or devotion—others do. You can visit them, as I do, out of pure curiosity, out of an in interest in history or architecture, and to observe how people visit shrines. Or don’t visit the shrine at all when in these sanctuary cities, because the municipalities mentioned here also pay tribute to the gods of beauty, construction, gastronomy, wine, nature, even meaning, whatever that may mean. And here’s the best part: respectful as we must be when visiting a shrine that doesn’t speak to us spiritually, we don’t have to fake adoration, because blasphemy is not a crime in France. Praise be!

For the 18 municipalities within the Villes Sanctuaires network, the shrine or sanctuary is only half the picture. The site’s pious handlers work in tandem with local tourist officials, who also seek to promote other aspects of tourism within the municipality and in the surrounding region. Each member-municipality tells a different story in which the spiritual retreat or Catholic pilgrimage site or otherwise sanctified structure can lead to explorations regarding other heritage sites, gastronomy, wine, hiking, and nature—or vice versa.

France today is a secular state not a Christian or Catholic country. Its culture is a mixed bag that doesn’t stem from the history of a once-dominant religion. Yet the history of Christian, particularly Catholic, dominance in France has left major physical markers. Among them, a fascinating, photogenic and/or curious variety of heritage sites that the traveler is invited to encounter. Christianity’s religious and political history in France also includes a record of harms, dangers and abuses that are also worth examining. Thankfully, one is no longer forced to or expected to honor religiously inspired historical sites or the shrines of these sanctuary cities in specific ways, yet all are accessible to visitors whatever one’s views. By contrast, travelers are highly unlikely to visit a synagogue or mosque or temple if they don’t identify with the associated religion. Even travelers who do identify rarely visit those, whereas the vast majority of non-Catholics visitors to France will enter a church. Think Paris’s Notre Dame Cathedral.

Pilgrims and wayfarers, reverent and irreverent

For the purposes of this article, let’s use both portions of Merriam-Webster’s definition of a pilgrim: 1: one who journeys in foreign lands: wayfarer. 2: one who travels to a shrine or holy place as a devotee.

The Villes Sanctuaires en France network was created in 1994, not as a direct promotional tool so much as a way for municipal tourist officials and overseers of shrines and sanctuaries to exchange information and learn from each other regarding the welcoming of religious and non-religious pilgrims. Only recently, in December 2025, did the association hold its first organized press workshop.

The event took place in Paris at the religious guest house attached to Sacré Coeur Basilica in Montmartre. Entrance to the hotel is from behind the basilica on a street named for the Chevalier de la Barre. The chevalier was a nobleman who was arrested then tortured and executed in 1766, at the age of 20, because he vandalized a wooden crucifix and failed to take his hat off when a religious procession went by, along with other impious, blasphemous acts. He immediately came to be seen as a secular martyr for the Enlightenment against the dangers of religious intolerance of Church and its bedmate State. Laws today sanction those who incite hate and violence, whether with respect to religion or other matters, while the Chevalier de la Barre remains a symbol of the right to irreverence with respect to something some consider sacred.

It isn’t at all ironic that the street near the Catholic holy site is named after the ill-fated young fellow. Instead, the street was baptized in honor of la Barre at a time when Sacré Coeur was under construction, during the political tug-of-war between Catholic and anticlerical forces in France. While the church rose with one vision of French society, the naming of the street and a statue to la Barre (located in what is now a dog park nearby) were intentional reminders of changing social priorities.

Together, the street and the church, the young nobleman and the devout pilgrim, the charming grey cobblestones and the massive white dome, coexist today as attractive reminders of how travelers—whatever kind of pilgrim they may be, whatever reverent or irreverent thoughts they may have—can experience, learn from and share it all.

The Sanctuary Cities network naturally plays the spiritual card in promoting tourism—unless it’s the tourist card in promoting spirituality—but these villages, towns and cities needn’t be seen as religious destinations alone. Whether you consider yourself a religious pilgrim or a wayfarer in a foreign land, or both at once, or sometimes one, sometimes another; whether you’re a theist (aficionado of a god that does or doesn’t act on human affairs) or a nontheist; whether you go in for blasphemy, heresy, dogma, or the smell of incense; whether you consider yourself spiritual or not; whether you wish that this article had been about deportation or resistance, now that you’ve come this far in, stay with me as I present the 18 current members of the network of Sanctuary Cities in France.

Municipalities in the Sanctuary Cities network vary from world-renown destinations to little-known village.

Among the most famous of these Sanctuary Cities is Lourdes, a town of 13,800 whose shrines attract 3 million visitors per year. Lourdes is primarily known as a spiritual destination relative to sainted Bernadette Soubirous (1844-1879), who is said to have had 18 sightings of Mary from February to July 1858. Personally, I’ve little curiosity about Bernadette herself, but the spirit moves me to visit Lourdes soon so as to witness the Bernadette phenomenon up close and because Lourdes makes for an excellent starting point for exploration in the Pyrenees. There’s a visitable fortress just above the town. A funicular goes to the summit of the Pic du Jer. Further from town, another funicular goes to the even more impressive summit of the Pic du Midi, and there are numerous trails for hiking expeditions in the region. (Stay tuned for my 2026 Lourdes article.)

The photogenic tidal island of Mont Saint Michel is another major destination among these Sanctuary Cities.

While you don’t need to carry an all-knowing deity in your thoughts to be curious about the place, I encourage all travels to delve into the fascinating religious, architectural, technological and geopolitical history of the site, whether through reading or by hiring a specialized local guide, even if only to understand the successive eras of construction on the mount, culminating with the 13th-century portion known as “the Marvel.” I suspect that, unlike visitors to Lourdes, only a small percentage of the millions who come each year to Mont Saint Michel is aware that the mount maintains an active Catholic community—the men and women of the Monastic Fraternities of Jerusalem. In the village and hard to spot among the souvenir shops and pricey omelets, the House of Pilgrims is a sanctuary for visitors who seek churchly hospitality.

Nevers, population 33,000, is located on the edge of two major travel and touring routes and receives relatively few foreign visitors. It’s on the inner edge Burgundy but without vineyards to draw wine travelers, and it’s the starting point for the 415-mile Loire by Bike route but cyclists largely pedal along paths further downstream. Religious pilgrims, however, know Nevers as the place to marvel at the body of Bernadette of Lourdes. Why aren’t her remains in Lourdes to greet the 3 million visitors there? Because Bernadette of Lourdes joined the Sisters of Charity and lived her short life as a nun in Nevers, where she died at the age of 35. Personally, I’m not planning a trip to Nevers just for that, though I do soon expect to take in the embalmed sight. I’ll also check out the Ducal Palace, have a peek in at the earthenware museum, find a potter to visit, and seek out a lively bistro or good restaurant. I enjoy the sense of discovery of exploring a bypassed town with an eclectic mix of offerings with an eye to encountering something or someone that sparks my interest. (Again, stay tuned for an upcoming article.)

Further south in Burgundy, Paray-le-Monial’s Sacré Coeur (Sacred Heart) Basilica represents Romanesque architectural splendor to Catholic and non-Catholic visitors alike. The former may specifically come to embrace their sense of the Sacred Heart. It was in this town that Margaret-Marie Alacoque claimed to have had three visitations from Jesus from 1673 to 1675, revealing his heart and its meaning to her on the third. The basilica therefore welcomes a significant influx of religious pilgrims. They may or may not also be gastronomic pilgrims, interested in Charolais beef. Charolais is common in much of France but the massive Charolais breed of cattle has its origins in this region and is named for the town of Charolles, eight miles east.

Spirituality needn’t be the main draw of a town or city in the sanctuary network. Wine can be the magnet, at least it is for me when I think of Cahors, which stands out in the wine world as the primary home for malbec in France. Whether you prefer your wine blended, blessed or 100% malbec, or don’t drink at all, no visitor venturing this deep into the country would skip the city’s key heritage sight: the 900-year-old Saint Etienne (Saint Stephen) Cathedral. Within the bowels of the cathedral awaits the Holy Headdress, venerated as the supposed head covering placed on Jesus as he was wrapped in a shroud for burial. Some will stand before it in awe and adoration. Others will raise an eyebrow, shake their head, and think “Oh, the things that people will believe.” But all visitors check it out. Beyond the malbec, the cathedral and the old town, it is the House of Pilgrims at the convent of Vaylats that gives Cahors sanctuary status and provides hospitality for hikers on the Way of Saint James of Compostela.

Sometimes the distinction between religious and non-religious pilgrim-tourists is blurred because they’re all following the same path. That’s the case at Rocamadour, one of the most visually stunning of these Villes Sanctuaires due to way the village hugs the canyon wall. Rocamodour is just over an hour’s drive north of Cahors or east of Sarlat. Visitors of all stripe climb the 216 steps to the sanctuary, then gaze upon the Black Virgin, a little statue with a large reputation.

Brive-la-Gaillarde, just over an hour’s drive north of Rocamadour, is better known for its rugby team than for its caves of Saint Anthony of Padua. But there it is, a sanctuary dedicated to the patron saint of all things lost and found.

Many trains to Bayeux and the D-Day Landing Zone of Normandy stop in the sanctuary town of Lisieux. Looking out the window as the train approaches the station, you see an immense basilica on the hill, its architecture inspired by Paris’s Sacré Coeur. The basilica honors Thérèse Martin (1873-1897), better known as Saint Thérèse of Lisieux. I’m not suggesting that any but the most Teresian travelers take time from their brief tour of the Landing Zone to visit Lisieux, but it’s nice to know what you’re looking at as you pass by on the train.

Teresa’s sainthood marks much of the lower half of Normandy. Her devout parents, the canonized couple Louis and Zélie Martin, lived in Alençon, and their shrine there brings that town into the fold of Sanctuary Cities. Alençon is, however, better known in knitting circles for its lace-making history, as presented in its Lace Museum.

Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer’s annual pilgrimage in May attracts Romani from throughout Europe and tourists from far and wide into the Camargue Regional Park. Yet for most visitors, it’s the natural sensations of its marshes and bottomlands that set the Camargue apart along the Mediterranean.

Most foreign travelers would be surprised to learn that the Loire River, which evokes royal chateaux and easy-going biking along its east-west flow, starts deep in an off-track area of southern France and builds up strength on a northerly flow. Le Puy-en-Velay, population 19,000, in the Haute-Loire (Upper Loire) department, is the first city along the river’s course. Its geographical location and the presence of an ancient shrine to Mary earned it a major place on the map for medieval pilgrims arriving from the east and northeast on the Way of Saint James. Le Puy’s Notre-Dame Cathedral, its monumental statue of Notre-Dame de France, and its nearby volcanic chimney topped with a chapel round out its major Christian sights. But a foreign traveler is unlikely to come here unless interested in exploring the striking natural surroundings of this former volcanic region.

The sanctuary village of Souvigny also has a remarkable Romanesque church, along with the history of the first house of Bourbon—Bourbon as in future kings of France not corn whiskey. Souvigny is a 15-minute drive from the city of Moulins, home to the National Costume Center.

Then there are a handful of more obscure sanctuary villages and towns in the network: Lalouvesc, a remote village in Ardèche; Ars-sur-Formans, which sits quietly between the Beaujolais vineyards and Lyon; Cotignac in the backcountry of Provence; Sainte-Anne-d’Auray in Brittany; Vendeville near the northern tip of France, and La Salette, at nearly 6000 feet in the Alps. Non-religious pilgrims visiting the sanctuaries and shrines there will especially find the opportunity to commune with nature in various shapes and forms in the surrounding area.

See the official site for this network of sanctuary cities for more information about the shrines, sanctuaries, and points of interest of all kinds in and near these villages, towns and cities.

© 2025, Gary Lee Kraut

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The curators of France have sports on the brain. I imagine hundreds of them gathering in a post-Covid funk at a convention at the Louvre two or three years back, trying to come up with ways to attract visitors to their museums. Suddenly, a specialist in, say, 18th-century stockings, a graduate of the class of 2008 at the Institut National du Patrimoine, stands up and shouts, “Eureka! Forget about the 150th anniversary of Impressionism in 2024, let’s all plan shows about sports to coincide with the Paris Olympics!” There follows a standing ovation and a buzz that spills over to the Champagne reception and evolves into an orgy of ideas for the Olympic crossover into cultural exhibitions in museums and other venues. Now, 2, 3 years later, dozens of sports-related exhibitions have blossomed throughout France. And you can visit all of them for less than the cost a nosebleed seat at a second-round match of beach volleyball at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

The official map of Olympic and Paralympic sporting venues also presents sports-related cultural and event locations throughout France.

Here is a selection of major and minor exhibitions in Paris and various regions of France during this Olympic year.

A Selection from France’s Cultural Olympiad

Paris’s fashion museum, the Palais Galliera, gets into the act with Fashion on the Move #2, presenting 300 items that “explore the role of special clothing in physical and sports activities as well as the sociological factors reflected in its development.” From horseback riding to tennis to golf to bicycling, along with much sea bathing and swimming, visitors can examine “the gradual specialization of sports garments and the arrival of sportswear in people’s ordinary everyday wardrobe.” This exhibition, running until Jan. 5, 2025, follows on the heels of the first Fashion on the Move show, which pranced along similar ground.

The Pantheon in Paris, that impressive and vital church-cum-monument-to-the-ideals-of-the-French-Republic, hosts until September 29 the exhibition Paralympic History: From Integration in Sport to Social Inclusion, 1948-2024.

The Museum of Jewish Art and History in Paris presents the 1930s work of André Steiner. See the video below for a brief description and glimpse of André Steiner: The Body, from Desire to Transcendence, showing until September 22.

Also in Paris, sport and urban cultures form the raison d’être of Spot 24, a temporary exhibition space and Olympics shop located a 10-minute walk west of the Eiffel Tower. In a series of corporate-hip displays, the exhibition showcases six new or recent Olympic disciplines: BMX freestyle, skateboarding, sport climbing, surfing, 3×3 basketball and breaking. Until Dec. 31.

The National Sport Museum in the Allianz Riviera Stadium in Nice needs no Olympic theme to work up a sweat. Still, it would be remiss in not mounting an Olympic-related temporary exhibition. The result is Les Elles des jeux, which examines the place of women in the Olympics over the past 130 years. It runs until September 22.

In Lyon during the month of August, the regional CNRS (French National Center for Scientific Research) presents at the Parc de la Tête d’Or an exhibition called Sport et Science: L’union fait la force (strength through unity), examining, among other aspects, how science benefits professional and amateur athletes.

In Burgundy, the MuséoParc Alésia looks at the Olympic Games of Antiquity in Ô Sport, des Jeux pour des dieux (the Games for the gods) https://www.alesia.com/o-sport-des-jeux-pour-des-dieux/, along with a separate exhibition titled Archeology and Sport, both until November 30. The museum-park, created at the site of a major battle between Roman legions and the Celtic tribes that inhabited Gaul prior to the Roman conquest, is located 35 miles northwest of Dijon by car (or a quick side-trip while biking along the Canal de Bourgogne).

In Toulouse, the southwestern city known as “the European capital of aeronautics and space,” the title of the exhibition at the Cité de l’Espace (Space City) is unsurprisingly Space and Sport. Showing until the end of the year, it highlights the similarities between top-level athletes and astronauts.

Bordeaux naturally sought a wine angle. Whether its convincing or not (haven’t been), the Cité du Vin has mounted an exhibition that finds a connection between life in the stadium and work in the vineyards and the common challenges facing both athletes and winegrowers. Whatever. Showing until September 29.

In the Alsatian city of Sélestat, the Humanist Library, which hosts notable exhibitions related to its extensive collection of medieval manuscripts and 15th- and 16th-century printed books, presents En garde ! L’escrime, entre fiction littéraire et réalité historique (fencing, between literary fiction and historical reality). June 27 to November 10.

In addition to being well off the radar of most travelers, the Centre Historique Minier, a museum about the history of mining built on the site of an old mine in Lewarde (Upper France), 27 miles south of Lille, would appear to have a tough time finding a sporting angle. It nevertheless manages to jump on the Olympic bandwagon by exploring how mine owners, beginning in the mid-19th century, saw sports and sporting clubs as a way of structuring the free time of their employers and families with activities and a social framework that could be beneficial for their cohesion and physical fitness. The sporting exhibition continues until May 4, 2025.

La Fabrique des Savoirs, the Knowledge Factory, in Elbeuf (Normandy) is an eclectic museum dedicated to all kinds of knowledge and know-how, particularly relative to nature, archeology and industry in and around the loop in the Seine upstream from Rouen. Sports enters mix this summer with the exhibition De l’usine au stade (from the factory to the stadium), June 21 to Sept. 29, which tells about the development of sports and sporting facilities in the area from 1870 to today.

(Contemporary) Art & Sport

Art & Sport is the unambiguous heading for 13 exhibitions of contemporary art taking place at various times from May to November in 13 cities representing the 13 regions of metropolitan France.

Considering what are often thought of as two distinct audiences—the artistic and museum-going public on the one hand and the sporting and sport-going public on the other, the former considered elitist in opposition to the latter often seen as “the people”—the national cultural organization GrandPalaisRMN is supporting an array of exhibitions intended to bring contemporary art to those who don’t usually enter museums. The venues for these exhibitions are therefore sports facilities and outdoor event spaces.

A good example of the concept is an exhibition that recently closed in Nevers (Burgundy) titled Hand in Hand in Hand. Taking place at a local sports center used by the Nevers handball team, the show considered the place of the hand and the sense of touch in contemporary art. A handball stadium may seem like an unlikely place to draw a substantial audience until you consider that handball is a major sport in France. In fact, in a rare Olympic double, France’s men’s and women’s handball teams both won gold three years ago at the Tokyo Olympics.

Through to the end of June in Mulhouse (Alsace), the theme of color in contemporary art is examined at an exhibition titled Pop Up Play Polychrome, showing at the Mulhouse Climbing Center. Why there? As an echo to the colors of the climbing walls.

In Pau (New Aquitaine), in June and July, the city’s aquatic center houses the exhibition How to Whisper to the Ocean. Water is naturally the common element in works that explore with drama, poetry and humor the concept of voyages to places foreign, unknown and/or subject to climate change.

In Le Mans (Western Loire), time is the theme of the works presented at the track of the 24 Hours of Le Mans races. It’s a short exhibition, lasting only June 11 to 16, the week of the Hypercar race.

The theme of the storm will draw the eyes of visitors at the Old Port in Marseilles from June 30 to July 3.

From July 5 to September 2, the impressive equestrian center in Saint Lô (Normandy) is the venue for works on the theme of animals, with an African proverb leading the way: If an animal tells you he can speak, he’s probably lying.

The works presented from September 7 to 29 at Nîmes‘s skate park, France’s largest, will explore street life.

In Paris, from July 12 to September 9, multiculturalism is the umbrella theme at the Maison de la Conversation in the 18th arrondissement. What does conversation have to do with sport? Well, as anyone who has taken part in café culture in Paris well knows, conversation is the primary sport in the capital city, though dodging cyclists is well on its way to overtaking it. Furthermore, one of the main conversations among Parisians for many months now has been Olympic fatigue, even before the Games begin.

For the full schedule and description of (contemporary) Art & Sport exhibitions, see here.

© 2024, Gary Lee Kraut

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France, it appears, is in the midst of a “sexual recession.” Or is it a depression given that the decline in sexuality activity has been going on for nearly two decades now?

The country’s major opinion polling company Ifop (Institut français d’opinion publique) leads off the summary of its recent findings by stating: “The proportion of French who’ve had sexual relations over the past 12 months hasn’t been so low in 50 years: on average 76%, i.e. a decrease of 15 points since 2006 (CSF study).”*

If true, that places the annual rate of sexual activity of those 18 and over at a lower level than during the pill-fueled sexual revolution. The Simon Report of 1970 places the figure at a then-rising 82%.

The study further found that the so-called sexual recession is particularly marked for 18-24-year-olds, among whom 28% of those filling out the questionnaire who had declared themselves to be “sexually initiated” stated that they had not had relations in the previous year. That compares with only 5% saying so in 2006. It could be that early gen y’ers were more likely to lie on questionnaires than gen z’ers, that is if you consider sexual activity once per year to be brag-worthy. How about once per week? The study found that 43% of respondents declared having sexual activity on average once per week. In 2009 that figure was 59%.

The study sees increasing screen time as one cause of the decline. Indeed, when was the time you used the term “digital” to refer to anything but electronics?

The increased awareness of the notion of consent in physical relations is also presented as playing a part in the reported decrease of sexual activity. In that respect, the poll notably found that among women 18-49 years old, 52% stated that they sometimes made love without desiring to do so, compared with 76% in 1981.

“After years of hypersexuality,” the study concludes in its summary, “the decades of 2010/2020 mark the start of a new cycle” with less of a cultural emphasis on “active sexuality [as] an essential component of a successful life or, in any case, of a harmonious couple.” Many women, in particular, don’t feel “obligated to respond to the sexual desire of their partner” and fewer men now see “a strong libido [as] an essential element of their masculinity.”

Before you change your travel plans to pursue your erotic dream vacation in, say, Italy instead France, note that this so-called sexual recession is not a phenomenon specific to France as it has been found in studies elsewhere in Europe and in the United States.

A full report of the study, in French, can be found here. The Ifop study was based on a sample of 1911 people representing the population of metropolitan France 18 and older.

*Translation of quotes from the study are by Gary Lee Kraut as is the image above.

The post Is France in a “Sexual Recession”? appeared first on France Revisited - Life in Paris, Travel in France.

Admittedly, war touring isn’t for everyone. After all, that’s far from the Eiffel Tower, isn’t it? (Well, no, you can actually see the Eiffel Tower from an American war cemetery.) And you’d rather be drinking Champagne, right? (Well, the largest U.S. WWI monument in France actually overlooks Champagne vineyards at Château-Thierry.) And you’d rather visit the Gothic cathedrals of France than the war shines of Americans. (You mean like those that you’ll pass along the way?)

OK, I won’t try to convince you. But if you’ll give a look and listen to the presentation below, you’ll see and learn why someone—maybe not you, but you’ve got curious friends and relatives, right?—might want to visit these sights.

Don’t just take my word for it.

Earlier this year I met with John Wessels, Chief Operating Officer of the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC), to ask if the ABMC would be willing to participate in a Zoom talk with me to explain to readers of France Revisited the interest of knowing about and one day visiting the American WWI sights of France. He readily agreed. There was then a question of finding the right person to co-present with me.

I’ve written many articles about touring American war sights in France relative to both the WWI and WWII, I’ve have given lectures in the United States on the subject, and I’ve personally taken numerous travelers to visit these sights. But I’m a generalist regarding travel and touring in France. So I needed a true specialist to join me for the presentation, preferably a military historian who’s visited the sights to be discussed who could speak authoritatively about both major events of the First World War and the creation and evolution of memorials, monuments and cemeteries. Thanks to John Wessels and to the ABMC’s media and communications duo of Hélène Chauvin in Paris and Ashley Byrnes in Arlington, we found the perfect specialist for the program: Ben Brands, the ABMC’s historian and a war veteran himself (Afghanistan).

I now invite you to watch the France Revisited “Conversation with an Expert” below in which Ben Brands and I speak about the American WWI memorials, monuments and cemeteries of France. This presentation—illustrated with numerous maps and photos—was conducted and recorded via Zoom on November 10, 2022, with a live audience of readers of France Revisited. Several segments were rerecorded shortly thereafter so as to resolve technical problems and for coherence.

The timeline below the video indicates the list of topics, events and sights along with the speaker, whether Ben Brands (BB) or myself (GLK). The full presentation lasts 1½ hours. If you wish to watch only portions of the presentation, I recommend that you watch it directly on Youtube and on full screen so that you can click or tap directly on the timeline in the Youtube description section in order to arrive at segments of particular interest to you and better view details of the images. Be sure to watch my introduction and Ben Brand’s conclusion to understand the underlying reasons for organizing this presentation.

Video timeline

0:00:00 Introduction by Gary Lee Kraut
0:05:40 Ben Brands presents the work of the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC)
0:07:12 Who is Ben Brands? What is his role as historian at the ABMC? His tour of duty as a company commander in Afghanistan.
0:12:22 A comparison between a WWII map of the Invasion of Normandy 1944 and WWI maps of northern and northeastern France and Belgium. (GLK)
0:15:24 American entrance into war. Pershing visits Lafayette’s tomb in the Picpus Cemetery in Paris. (BB)
0:18:39 The annual changing of the American flag over Lafayette’s tomb in Paris. (GLK)
0:19:30 Origin and evolution of the ABMC. (BB)
0:23:35 The Lafayette Escadrille Memorial. (BB)
0:27:41 The Suresnes American Cemetery. (GLK, BB)
0:32:00 Mont Valérien, a major French WWII memorial, a 5-minute walk from the Suresnes American Cemetery. (GLK)
0:34:17 The American Naval Monument at Brest. (BB)
0:36:39 Why didn’t the Germans intentionally harm the Allies’ WWI sights during WWII? American involvement in the Somme. The Somme American Cemetery. (BB)
0:40:35 Cantigny. (BB, GLK)
0:42:09 Amiens and the American Red Cross huts at the former Cosserat Textile Factory. (GLK)
0:45:01 Art Deco design and architecture in Saint Quentin and Reims. (GLK)
0:46:33 The American Monument at Château-Thierry, Paul Cret, Belleau Wood, the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery. (BB)
0:57:52 The French-American House if Friendship in Château-Thierry. (GLK)
0:58:34 The Oise-Aisne American Cemetery. (BB)
1:01:04 Quentin Roosevelt, a president’s son killed in aerial combat. (BB)
1:05:08 Anne Morgan and the National Museum of French American Cooperation in the Château de Blérancourt. (GLK)
1:05:56 The Saint Mihiel American Cemetery and the Montsec American Monument. (BB)
1:09:20 Philanthopist Belle Skinner and the village of Hattonchâtel. (GLK)
1:10:18 Verdun and the Douaumont Ossuary. (GLK)
1:11:56 The Montfaucon American Monument. (BB)
1:14:18 African-American soldiers: segregation, heroes, awards and burials. Jewish grave markers. (BB)
1:20:52 The Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery. (BB)
1:23:09 The Romagne German Cemetery, Jean-Paul de Vries’ Romagne 14-18, Sergeant York. (GLK)
1:25:17 The French and American Tombs of the Unknown Soldier. (BB)
1:27:25 Conclusions by Gary and Ben.

Sights discussed in this presentation are located in the Paris region and the departments of Finistère (Brittany), Somme (Upper France), Aisne (Upper France) and Meuse (Eastern France).

Text © 2022, Gary Lee Kraut

The post Where and Why to Visit the American WWI Sights of France appeared first on France Revisited - Life in Paris, Travel in France.

Does it matter? In many cases, no—you buy your ticket (mostly online these days) and visit. But it’s worth knowing which monuments are operated by the Centre des Monuments Nationaux (CMN), the Center for National Monuments, since a pass called Passion Monuments allows for unlimited visits to most of them for a full year for only 45€. (Passion Monuments doesn’t mean that the monuments have passion but that the holder is passionate about visiting them.)

Tasked by the Ministry of Culture and Communication with “conserving, restoring and maintaining the monuments and collections under its responsibility,” the CMN oversees nearly 100 monuments throughout France, 80 of which can be visited with the Passion Monuments pass.

For monument-minded residents and others available to provide an address in France, Passion Monuments is a must-have that will likely pay for itself several times over. There’s also a psychological benefit of having such a pass since you will find yourself revisiting monuments of which you’d previously thought “been-there-done-that” and visiting others that aren’t otherwise on your cultural radar. Not to mention that now you don’t have to buy a ticket when you accompany visiting friends to the top of the Arc de Triomphe.

Forty-five euros is about the cost of entering just four monuments. In Paris, the pass covers such (re)visitable monuments as the Arc de Triomphe, the Conciergerie, the Pantheon and the Sainte-Chapelle, as well as the notable newcomer Hôtel de la Marine (entrance for which alone is 17€). In the Paris region, use the pass as an invitation to yourself to visit the suburban sights Saint Denis Basilica-Cathedral and the castle of Vincennes, both easily accessible by metro.

No need to be Paris-centric about this. Pick any region and you’ll find major monuments operated by the CMN that are included on the pass: the chateau of Azay-le-Rideau in the Loire Valley, the castle of Angers, the abbey of Mont Saint Michel in Normandy, the castle and ramparts of Carcassonne, the Palais du Tau in Reims, the abbey of Cluny in Burgundy, the megaliths of Locmariaquer in Brittany, the château d’If off the coast of Marseille, the prehistoric site of Les Eyzies-de-Tayac in Dordogne, etc. See the full list here. The list itself will make you want to hit the monumental road.

The pass is officially available to residents of France over the age of 26 but CMN isn’t actually asking for proof of residence but simply that you provide an address in France where they can the card, though you can also pick it up at CMN headquarters. So visitors staying long enough (several weeks? several months?) to get good use from the pass might also wish to purchase one in their own name. After ordering the pass online, your card will be sent by post to that address within four days or can be picked up at the CMN’s headquarters in Paris at the Hôtel de Sully, 62 rue Saint-Antoine in the 4th arrondissement (metro Saint-Paul).

The pass isn’t available to those under 26 years of age for the simple reason that entrance to most of the monuments is free to anyone under 18 and to members of the European Union aged 18 to 25. By over 26 is meant anyone past their 26th birthday, so even 26 + 1 day counts as being over 26.

The pass also gives slightly reduced rates for cultural partners, including the chateaux of Chantilly and Fontainebleau in the Paris regions, the Pinault Collection and the Invalides in Paris, and twenty-some other sights elsewhere in France. Three set days per year you can also invite a guest to join you on your cultural excursion free of charge.

(For visitors to the capital staying for one week or less, the Paris Museum Pass remains the best deal for visiting museums and monuments. Other cities and regions also have local passes that are a good deal.)

Timed reservations are now required for most museums and monuments, and for most of those museums and some of those monuments that’s the cases for Passion Monuments and Paris Museum Pass holders as well. So be sure to verify online for each sight that you plan to visit.

© 2021, Gary Lee Kraut

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While the current health crisis causes us to withdraw into our homes, France this week commemorated fear-inducing events that previously brought millions out into the street: terrorism.

Though it went little noticed as COVID-19 dominated the news, on March 11 France commemorated its first National Day of Homage to Victims of Terrorism.

This new annual commemoration on the French calendar echoes the European Day of Remembrance of Victims of Terrorism that was first held one year after the Madrid bombings of March 11, 2004. Those bombings, acts of Jihadist terrorism, left 191 dead and 1800 injured, marking them among the most murderous acts of terrorism in Europe since the Second World War.

King Filipe VI of Spain therefore attended the French national ceremony which took place on Parvis des Droits de l’Homme (Human Rights Plaza) at Trocadero, with a view, well known to visitors, of the Eiffel Tower in the background.

The Paris ceremony was highlighted by speeches by French President Emmanuel Macron

and the king of Spain.

Other ceremonies took place throughout France on March 11.

The national ceremony was held in the presence of surviving victims and families of victims. It included a reading of portions of the Universal 1948 Declaration of the Rights of Man, singing by French singer Abd al Malik, a reading of extracts of the writing of Albert Camus, singing by a children’s choir, and singing of the Marseillaise, the French national anthem, and of the Beethoven’s Ode to Joy, the anthem of the European Union.

While the date of the French national day is in line with the date of the Madrid attacks of 2004, March 11 was also the date of the start of a series of attacks in 2012 by Moroccan-born Frenchman Mohammed Merah during which he would eventually kill four members of the French military in Montauban and Toulouse and three civilians at a Jewish school in Toulouse, with others wounded, before he was killed during a police raid on March 22.

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On the road, we reach our destination earlier as sunset creeps toward teatime. We are more kindly treated in small-town hotels. In Paris we linger longer in museums as though the rain outside makes us more interested in art and history. In restaurants we return to culinary classics as though we’ve lost a taste for street food. We renew our interest in theater, concerts and opera. We abandon café and bar terraces to smokers. We find ourselves admiring each other’s scarves. We arrive more on time for dinner parties. On some Sundays a lengthy brunch becomes our main meal of the day. And have I got a brunch suggestion for you!

Brunch and beyond

Benoît Castel: Bread, Brunch, Pastries in Eastern Paris
Brunch at Benoît Castel Ménilmontant, a pastry shop and bakery in the 20th arrondissement, is an ideal place to begin weekend wandering in the increasingly gentrified neighborhoods of eastern Paris. We came for the bread, we stayed for the brunch, and only later did we taste the heart of Benoît Castel’s trade, the pastries.

Paris Street Talk: Rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud, 11th arrondissement
Where to after brunch? Some call it a no-go zone full of potential Islamist terrorists. Others pretend that the neighborhood is just one big hipster playground. What’s really going on at the eastern end of Jean-Pierre Timbaud? Here, in a two-part illustrated vignette, is what two American travelers discover as they explore eastern Paris after brunch one Sunday afternoon.
Part 1: Chadors, Communists, Cannibals
Part 2: The Wall of 3 Crowns

Cluny Museum of the Middle Ages: Magical Unicorns and Gothic Sculpture
When it fully reopens at the end of 2020 upon completion of a 5-year restoration and reconfiguration project, the Cluny Museum will regain its place among Europe’s premier museums of medieval art and among Paris’s major museums. Already, the project is bearing fruit in the form of two concurrent exhibitions that explore some of the mysteries of medieval art and culture: Magical Unicorns (until Feb. 25) and Birth of Gothic Sculpture (until Jan. 7).

Other exhibitions in Paris

The Army Museum at the Invalides reveals (until Jan. 20) just how complicated and illusory peace can be with the exhibition In the East, War Without End, 1918-1923.

The Museum of Jewish Art and History examines the life of Sigmund Freud (until Feb. 10).

Masterpieces from the Mellon collection from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts are presented (until Dec. 2) in the exhibition Country Life at the Museum of Hunting and Nature, a surprisingly beautiful and often ignored museum in the Marais.

Even if, like me, you were never particularly attracted to the work of Miro, you’ll nevertheless be drawn in to the measured evolution of the artist’s work in a major retrospective at the Grand Palais (until Feb. 4).

On the book shelf

English writer Annabel Simms recently published Half an Hour From Paris: 10 Secret Daytrips by Train. I’m wary of the use of the word “secret” to describe destinations that don’t involve Indiana Jones or certain bars. The book is nevertheless a welcome addition to the guidebook shelf. It provides detailed itineraries for DIY walking tours that will be of interest to curious travelers looking for lesser-visited areas of the Paris region. Among them, well-known sights such as Château de Vincennes, Malmaison and Bagatelle and little-known towns and villages such as Lagny sur Marne, La Ferté sous Jouarre and Igny. The book is a follow-up to Simms’s An Hour From Paris, reviewed here on France Revisited.

I’m even more wary of books that claim to tell us how to do anything like a “local” than I am of those that set out to reveal “secret” locations. Still, it’s no secret that one can eat quite well in Paris and that Clotilde Dusoulier knows her way around her local food market and around the kitchen. Tasting Paris: 100 Recipes to Eat Like a Local, her latest book, may have more appropriately been subtitled 100 Recipes to Eat Like a Local’s Parents, but thankfully many of the dishes their parents ate remain on tables of Paris today. With a trio of chocolate-dripping profiteroles on the cover, handsome illustrations inside, and little cultural tidbits at the start of each recipe, there’s a user-friendly feel to this book. The recipes may not be ultra-complicated, still, it helps to have a good local food market and to know some culinary secrets before undertaking them.

Driving in Europe

For those planning on driving in Europe, here’s some basic information (pdf) that will help you correctly select the appropriate fuel for your vehicle.

The Curious Tasting & Travel Club

The Curious Tasting & Travel Club has several small-group tastings and other events in the works, including tasting in Paris on Nov. 7, 13, 21, Dec. 6, 14, 19. Upcoming tastings involve Rhone Valley wines, whiskey, foie gras, smoked salmon, champagne, pastries. Contact me directly to be added to the list to receive event details.

Happy travels always,

Gary
Oct. 29, 2018

Gary Lee Kraut
Editor, France Revisited
www.francerevisited.com
gary@francerevisited.com

The post France Revisited’s Early Autumn Newsletter appeared first on France Revisited - Life in Paris, Travel in France.

France is a golfing country? Who knew?

Turns out lots of people, including the 410,000 members of the French Golf Federation and hundreds of thousands of occasional players swinging and putting away at 733 clubs and on over 600 courses of 9+ holes.

And the world’s foremost golfers knew as well since France will be hosting this year’s Ryder Cup from September 28 to 30. Twenty-four of America’s and Europe’s top players will meet in the biennial USA vs. Europe match play contest at Le Golf National, 18 miles southwest of the heart of the Paris in Guyancourt, just beyond Versailles.

Held every two years since 1927, other than during WWII, and, skipping 2001, on even years since 2002, the Ryder Cup has grown from a U.S.-England competition to a U.S.-UK and Ireland competition to a U.S.-Europe affair since 1973. Alternating between an American venue and a European venue, this is the first time the event is being held in France.

That represents top-flight confirmation that France takes its golf seriously. It’s also the occasion to shine a light on some of the most prestigious courses and resorts in choice destinations throughout the country, from Normandy to Basque Country to the Riviera and Provence by way of world-class courses within easy reach of Paris.

Introduced into France by English visitors in the second half of the 19th century, golf initially developed wherever there was a significant colony of British residents and vacationers: Pau, which had first course in continental Europe, the Basque Coast, the Rivera, Brittany, Normandy.

Here is a selection of top golf clubs, courses and resorts throughout France, particularly those in areas where golf can be combined with tourism. The map shows their location throughout France. Also see Gold Digest’s list of best golf courses in France for this year.

Within easy reach of Paris
The greater Paris region and just beyond comprise France’s premier golfing zone. Among the dozens of courses within easy reach of the capital, a trio of prestigious clubs are within putting distance of the major palaces: Versailles, Fontainebleau and Chantilly. Well, maybe not putting distance, but certainly a quick drive. So a visitor to the capital can easily opt of a golfing daytrip, while the rest of the family heads to palace.

I take that back. There’s no reason to choose between golfing and touring. At Versailles, for example, you can stay the luxurious Hôtel Trianon Palace located just outside the palace gates and easily fit a half day at Le Golf National on your itinerary. The club’s world-class Albatros course is just six miles southwest of Versailles. The Trianon Palace is the official base camp for the two teams during the Ryder Cup.

South of Paris, Golf de Fontainebleau is a historic course in Fontainebleau Forest, less than a mile from the palace, making for an especially easy golf-and-palace daytrip or overnight from the capital. Though redesigned over the years, the course still bears some of the marks of Tom Simpson, the British course designer who was behind a half dozen courses in France, including Chantilly and Morfontaine on the opposite side of Paris.

North of Paris, Golf de Chantilly is also less than a mile from the palace of Chantilly.

Normandy
Deauville, the queen of Normandy resort towns, has four courses nearby, including Golf Barrière Deauville. Deauville is an hour’s drive from the center of the D-Day Landing Zone.

A simpler way to combine golf with war touring is to include in your itinerary a round at the Omaha Beach Golf Club. The course and club house may be less dashing than most of the others on this list, but its situation on the cliff between Omaha Beach and Port-en-Bessin makes it an easy fit into any touring schedule. Here’s your schedule: Utah, Omaha, golf, Gold, Juno, Sword. Supreme Allied Commander-cum-President-cum World Golf Hall of Famer Dwight Eisenhower, who installed a putting green on the White House lawn, would be proud of you.

Le Touquet Golf Resort, is a fine course that’s also by the English Channel, just north of Normandy in Upper France.

Loire Valley
Castle + garden, castle + biking, castle + vineyard, castle + fine dining, castle + golf. There, I’ve just created your itinerary for a few days in the Loire Valley. Les Bordes at the northeastern end of the heart of the Loire Valley, between Orleans and Blois, is the course of choice in the region.

The Bordeaux Region
We all enjoy a good wine pairing: wine and cheese, wine and women, wine and song. How about wine and golf? Pair your saint emilion grand cru classés with the Tom Doak-designed course at the Grand Saint Emilionnais Golf Club. Pair your haut-médoc, perhaps even your margaux, with Golf du Médoc, 12 miles north of Bordeaux.

Basque Country and the Landes
Golf got an early foothold in the southwest corner of France due to it being a destination for wealthy British travelers in the second half of the 19th century. Golf de Biarritz Le Phare, created in 1888, was among the first. A century later it was joined by Golf d’Ilbarritz, an accompanying training center.

Golf d’Hossegor is a 45-minute drive to the north from Biarritz, where Basque Country gives way to the pines and cork oaks of the Landes region.

Côte d’Azur: The Riviera and nearby hills of Provence
Given the wealth and lavish hotels along the Riviera, the nearby hills of Provence naturally offer an abundance of locations for luxurious puttering about. That’s why the Côte d’Azur region recently created a golf pass covering 20 courses. The pass is especially intended for those who would like to tour the area via its golf courses by offering special pricing for a 2- or 4-course vacation in fall and winter and for 4-course stay in spring and summer. Many of the venues lie in the Antibes-Cannes-Mandelieu-Grasse zone.

The first golf course created along the Mediterranean was developed in the 1890s at the request of an exiled Russian grand duke who had previously encountered the sport at St. Andrews in Scotland. Cannes-Mandelieu’s Old Course Golf is the heir to that first course.

A few miles inland from Cannes and on the edge of Mougins, a town known for its annual culinary festival, Royal Mougins Golf Resort is among the most prestigious in the region.

Further afield and an exclusive world unto itself lies the Terre Blanche resort.

Corsica
As far as golf courses go, you can’t get any more Mediterranean in France than Golf de Spérone in Bonifacio on the southern tip of Corsica.

For a complete listing of golf courses in France see Tous les Golfs.

General admission tickets for match play at this year’s Ryder Cup, Sept. 28-30, sold out long ago, but ticket packages are available at publication time. General admission during the three days of team practice and other events leading up to the contest are also still available.

© 2018, Gary Lee Kraut

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This article follows an interview with architect Edouard Pastor, one of France’s leading experts on accessibility.

While many travelers scan the web for information as they prepare their trip to Paris, advance planning is especially important for those with a handicap or disability that may make it difficult or impossible to access certain museums and monuments.

The department of Durable and Adapted Tourism of the Paris Tourist Office communicates to tourism professionals and to the public about accessibility while also accompanying businesses in applying laws and being properly outfitted.

Hervé Guillon, the department’s coordinator for the past five years, is an urbanist who previously worked with Edouard Pastor at Handigo. Asked how Paris compares with other cities regarding accessibility, Guillon says, “We could do better, but we’re catching up with cities such as Barcelona and London. We’re not the best adapted as yet but we’re doing a good job at communicating what we have.”

The Paris Tourist Office provides extensive visitor information, including a list of accessible museums and monuments in and around the capital along with other useful information for those with a disability.

A downloadable brochure in English entitled Accessible Paris provides information about adapted hotels and restaurants and about companies specialized in transporting people with disabilities, along with information about artistic, cultural, and entertainment venues. A paper version is also available in Paris tourist offices.

Accessible.net lists accessible businesses and public buildings throughout France, and beyond.

Yanous.com is an online magazine in French with news and information useful for travelers and residents with a disability.

Jaccede.com/en/ is an internet guide and app that provides information about accessible businesses throughout France.

I Wheel Share is an app through which users share their experience about navigating Paris and other cities in view of physical and sensorial deficiencies.

Paris en Fauteuil Roulant (Paris in a wheelchair) is a Facebook page concerned with culture and lifestyle in the capital.

Labels of accessibility

Edouard Pastor and Handigo have provided the know-how behind the creation of Label LA Accessibilité, used to indicate the accessibility and usage performances of non-residential buildings. Discerned by the CSTB, the France-based Scientific and Technical Centre for Construction, it has been available in France since the spring 2017 via its subsidy Certivea and will extend internationally via its subsidiary Cerway beginning in 2018.

Already well established, the label Tourisme & Handicap, France’s national Tourism & Disability mark, was created in 2001 for the purpose of “providing reliable information… about accessibility to tourism sites and facilities in relation to the four categories of disability … and to develop a range of adapted tourism options.” The awarding of the label, along with a recent national label Destination pour tous (destination for all), is managed by the association Tourisme & Handicaps.

Annette Masson, president since the association’s inception, said in a phone interview, “We used to knock at doors to get tourism professionals interested in our work, now they come to us. There’s been an evolution of mentality. In Europe, France is now in the average regarding accessibility but we’ve made enormous progress. It’s difficult to make an old country accessible.”

In becoming involved in issues concerning accessibility Masson was not in a situation of disability herself, nor was anyone in her immediate family, but she had come to know people who were and saw the problems that confronted them.

“It’s not up to only those with disabilities or those close to them to defend their rights,” she said. “It’s also a societal question. We have to stop thinking that only those in a situation of disability need to care about accessibility. We all do. The elevator may be essential for some but we’re all happy to see one as we get older or if we’re pushing a stroller. “

© Gary Lee Kraut

This article was first published in a slightly different version in the October 2017 issue of The Connexion.

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I’ve selected 30—saints, queens, and musicians, assassinations, treaties and war, slavery, gastronomy and science—that give insights into various aspects of French history, culture and politics. These people and events aren’t all known to the general public in France, far from it, and many will seem obscure to the average visitors. Yet each in his/her/its own way has contributed to the culture and conversation that one encounters in France today.

Along with a brief description of their place in history you’ll discover here ways in which you can come into contact with that history as you travel in France. Also keep an eye and an ear out for other related sights, exhibitions, books, articles, documentaries and concerts in the coming year.

418

Saint Germain becomes bishop of Auxerre
There are a number of Saint Germains yet the most famous of these is Saint Germain of Auxerre, who played an important role in the helping the Church of Rome gain primacy in Gaul. In 418 Germain becomes bishop of Auxerre, in what is now Burgundy. He is said to have seen and encouraged in young Genevieve, who would become the patron saint of Paris, the spark of a life devoted to God. In Paris, the church Saint Germain l’Auxerrois, across the street from the Louvre and thus the church of kings, is dedicated to this Germain whereas Saint Germain des Prés is named for another Germain, bishop of Paris. Auxerre’s own cathedral is dedicated to Saint Stephen.

Théodoric I becomes king the Wisigoths
Théodoric I becomes king the Wisigoths during the succession of invasions and battles that take place in former Roman Gaul during the fall of the Western Roman Empire. He dies in battle against Attila in 451, a battle which nevertheless represents the failure of Attila’s invasion into Gaul. The aforementioned Genevieve is given some of the credit for Attila’s defeat for promoting the notion that God will lend a strong hand to protect the Christian people of Paris from the pagan invaders.

918

Death of Guillaume (William) the Pious, Duke of Aquitaine
It’s hard to find a place for this commemoration in your itinerary other than to note: 1, that Guillaume (about 875-918) founded in 909 the Benedictine Abbey of Cluny in Burgundy whose clout and offspring once radiated throughout Christian Europe and 2, that the oversized region of New Aquitaine partially sits within Guillaume’s vast dominion which also reached down to Toulouse across Auvergne and to Lyon and Burgundy.

1118

Death of Bertrade de Montfort, a Countess-cum-Queen
As any screenwriter knows, all you need to create an intriguing mini-series is a history book and the daily paper. There’s far too much scheming, scandal and feudal power play involved in the life of Berthade (born about 1170) to tell a neat little story about this intriguing beauty. In (very) short, Foulques IV, count of Anjou, repudiated his second wife to marry Bertrade, after which Philippe I, king of France, locked away his first wife so that he could marry Bertrade away from Foulques. The Church (think of them as Congressional leaders) then got involved in accepting, rejecting, excommunicating and finally readmitting the couple. But to think of Bertrande as chattel in this story is to misread medieval intrigue, for she had a son with Foulques and another with Philippe and wished them to become, respectively, count of Anjou and king of France, even though Philippe’s son with his first wife was the legitimate heir. She failed in her efforts and eventually withdrew to a convent.

1218

Founding of Les Sables d’Olonne
Now a seaside and sailing town in Vendée, midway between well-heeled La Baule and the portside charms of La Rochelle, Les Sables d’Olonne is the starting and finishing point of the round-the-world solo yachting race Vendée Globe, which is held every four years, next in 2020.

Death of Simon de Montfort, anti-Cathar crusader, Count of Toulouse

Deep into the era of the Crusades, the papal pleasure of seeing the Catholic kings and knights of Europe kill infidels rather than each other was rivaled only by the kingly and knightly pleasure of earning a righteous living through conquest.

When conquest in the Holy Land was elusive, one could always find a heretic to throw into a well or burn at the stake. But local butchery had its limits, so in 1209 Pope Innocent III set in motion the Albigensian or Cathar Crusade to eradicate the Christian-related movement of Catharism that challenged the authoritarian Church. Catharism had grown significantly in southwestern France, particularly in Languedoc, a territory with Carcassonne more or less at its center. Simon de Montfort (born about 1170 of the same Montfort family of the above-mentioned Bertrander) was one of the spearheads of the genocide of the appointed heretics. “Kill them all; God will know his own,” is what the papal legate reportedly said early in the crusade. Perhaps he didn’t really say it, but the instructions and benefits are inevitably clear enough in such matters. Simon’s consecration as a leader of this genocide would come when the pope awarded him the title of Count of Toulouse in 1215. He died in 1218 when crushed by a rock while laying siege to Toulouse, which had revolted against him. Castle ruins perched in the French Pyrenees, where Cathare’s sought refuge, are among the extraordinary sights to be discovered in Cathar Country of southwest France.

1418

Charles the-eventual-VII flees while Bernard VII d’Armagnac gets killed

Every time I read about the conflict between the Burgundians and the Armagnacs during the Hundred Years War between the French and the English it feels like the first time because I can never remember who supports whom in this story in which everyone is more or less related. But I’ve figured this much out: the Armagnacs supported the Orleans clan and the rule of the French king over France, while the wealth of Burgundians depended on trade with the English unless the French king wanted to share some of his tax income. So the Armagnacs and the Burgundians were rivals.

All hell breaks loose when the Duke of Burgundy has the Duke of Orleans (the king’s brother) assassinated in Paris in 1407. Nearly 30 years of civil war ensue while the larger war is also going on. 1418 is a particularly a low period for the French. On May 29, the Burgundians take control of Paris and imprison Bernard VII, leader of the Armagnacs and his cohorts in the city, while Charles, heir to the throne, flees Paris to safety in Bourges, an event that will lead him to be called “the little king of Bourges.” Two weeks later, in the name of fair trade with the English and certainly much else, Parisians break into the prison and massacre Bernard et al. Before long it’s the English that control Paris. In 1435 the French king lay siege to Paris to dislodge the English (mission accomplished a year later), while in the northern town of Arras the Burgundians and the Armagnacs sign a treaty ending the civil war. The Hundreds Year War then slowly winds down as the French reclaim land from the English, ending in 1453.

1468

The Treaty of Péronne
Not that the above ends the Burgundian affection for the English. After all, since Burgundy’s territory at the time reached into Flanders, England was a natural trading partner. With the long period of war generally over, the French king, Louis XI, reaches out to the duke of Burgundy, Charles the Bold, and goes to visit him in Péronne, 85 miles north of Paris. Tensions run high during negotiations until finally the duke and the king agree that they can be friends as long as Louis recognizes that Charles is a pretty powerful guy who can do whatever he wants. Instead of making you wait another nine years to commemorate the (sort of) end of this complex tale, here it is: In 1477 Charles, trying to maintain a connection between Burgundy and his possessions to the north, is killed in battle. Louis XI can then swallow Burgundy and some of its possessions in northern France.

1618

Birth of Count Roger de Bussy-Rabutin
Born in 1618, Bussy-Rabutin might have been known for his military career were it not for his insolence, his wit and his literary talents, which alternately got him exiled to his lands in Burgundy, elected to the French Academy, locked up in the Bastille, exiled again to Burgundy and eventually pardoned by the king. A colorful character, he epitomizes the literary, satirical and libertine culture of the Court of France in the 17th century. He is best known for writing “The Amorous History of the Gauls” (1666), which, to quote the subtitle of its 1727 edition in English, “[Contains] the Intrigues and Gallantries of the Court of France, During the Reign of Louis XIV.” The king was not amused—well, a little. Bussy-Rabutin is also remembered for his maxims on love, such as “Life’s greatest tormentor is the excess of jealousy”; “Love comes from blindness and friendship from knowledge”; “One is never content when in love, but he who doesn’t love is even less happy,” and “Absence is to love what wind is to fire; it extinguishes the small and inflames the great.” He died in 1693. For the traveler, he can be best remembered for the castle of his exile in Burgundy, Château de Bussy-Rabutin, open to the public.

Birth of chef François Pierre de La Varenne, author of “The French Cook”
An aristocrat in France of the second half of the 16th century could certainly eat well, what with all the great food products available from around the kingdom, vegetable plants that had been brought from the New World, and recipes circulating in the form of printed books. One could even dine with a certain refinery, thanks to the increasing use of a long fork with which to poke a nibble off one’s plate and lift it over one’s pristine neck ruff. But it was the 17th century that gave wings to French gastronomy and the etiquette to go with it. Chef to the Marquis d’Uxelles, La Varenne (1618-1678) is credited with codifying rules of French cuisine in his 1651 book “The French Cook.” Its full, original title can be seen on the cover. The book can be read on Gallica, site of the French National Library.

1668

Creation of L’Avare (The Miser) by Molière (1622-1673)
The comedy, a standard in the French repertory, was first performed at the Palais Royal Theater in 1668.

First publication of the Fables of Jean de La Fontaine
Where there is Molière, La Fontaine (1621-1695) is surely nearby since the two were contemporaries and major figures of 17th-century French letters. Their remains were even eventually brought side by side at Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. La Fontaine is best known for his fables, some of which can be read here. A museum dedicated to La Fontaine occupies the house in Château-Thierry where he was born.

Birth of composer Jean Gilles
Traveling Baroque music lovers might keep an ear out for Gilles’ Requiem since the French composer was born 350 years ago this year in Tarascon, between Avignon and Arles. Completed toward the end of his life, the Requiem was played at his own funeral in 1705 and at many others to follow, including those of Rameau in 1764 and Louis XV in 1774. Gilles’ Requiem and Mozart’s Requiem are on the program for a concert at the Royal Chapel of Versailles on June 26, 2018. Ticket information here.

Birth of composer François Couperin
Born into a musical family in Paris, Couperin’s compositions for the harpsicord will also get a hearing in various settings this year. He died in 1733.

1718

Founding of New Orleans
This year New Orleans celebrates the tercentennial of its founding as a French colony. It was named in honor of the Philippe, Duke of Orleans, who was at the time regent during the youth of King Louis XV, his first cousin once removed. The French town of Orleans, on the northernmost bend of the Loire River, is also celebrating the anniversary. The two cities recently signed a sister city pact. For more details see this article.

1768

The Genoese Republic cedes Corsica to France
Just in time for Napoleon Bonaparte to be born there as a Frenchman. The French nevertheless had to conquer the island. But some Corsicans are still fighting for independence.

Death of Marie Leszczynska, Louis XV’s queen
Marie Leszczynka, Louis XV’s Polish queen, was a trooper. They married when she was 22, he was 15. A true love, it appeared at first, at least a hot-blooded affair, and they made a fertile pair—she gave birth to 10 children in 10 years, including one set of twins. He then set her aside and she graciously and dutifully stayed there as he pursued his life as a lustful king. She died in 1668 at the age of 42, the last queen of France to die as queen (neither deposed, beheaded or widowed). Her memory is often overshadowed by talk of the Louis XV’s mistresses, from the four Mailly-Nesle sisters to the impressive Madame de Pompadour to the eventually beheaded Madame du Barry.

Birth of Charlotte Corday who assassinated Marat

Born in Normandy, Charlotte Corday died on guillotine in 1793 four days after assassinating, in his bathtub, Jean-Paul Marat, a major figure of the French Revolution. Read this article on France Revisited about Corday and the assassination.

1818

Birth of composer Charles Gounod
First performed (in Paris) in 1859, Gounod’s Faust nears the top of the hit parade of famous French operas. (Bizet’s Carmen naturally tops the list.) An aria or two of Gounod’ Romeo and Juliet may also ring a few bells. On June 14, 2018 the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris will host a concert version of Faust.

France and other European nations abolish the slave trade
Louis X had abolished slavery in France way back in 1315, as did many rulers in Europe. But with expansion in the New World, France and its European rivals pursued the development of their colonies with the help of the slave trade, which took the form of a navigational triangle that took Black Africans to the Americas and returned to home ports with raw materials from across the ocean. In 1818 France, under Louis XVIII, abolishes the slave trade, as did Britain, Spain, Portugal and The Netherlands at about the same time, altogether a part of the reordering of Europe following the Napoleonic Wars. It then took another 30 years for slavery itself to be abolished in French colonies.

Creation of the savings bank, Caisse d’Epargne, in France
The creation of a new type of in banking in France which allows those of any means, sex or age to place money in a bank for savings and interest.

Henri IV back in the saddle on the Pont Neuf
None of the royal statues that one sees in Paris is the original on their given site since they were all destroyed during the Revolution. (A Louis XIV from City Hall survived that is the Carnavalet Museum in the Marais). Copies began to be placed on pedestals with the return of the Bourbons with Louis XVIII after the fall of Napoleon. The most notable and majestic of these is the equestrian statue of Henri IV placed on the bridge Pont Neuf in 1818. Pieces of the original, particularly the hand of power, are also in the Carnavalet Museum.

1868

Death of Léon Foucault of pendulum fame
Like Eiffel’s tower, Foucault’s pendulum is a deceptively simple answer to a complex question. The former answers the question of how to build something 1000 feet high; the latter gives visual evidence of Earth’s rotation. In 1851 Foucault (born in Paris in 1819) set up a public scientific demonstration of his pendulum beneath the dome of the Pantheon in Paris. In 1995 a pendulum was given permanent place of honor there. A pendulum also swings at the national Museum of Technology (Musée des Arts et Métiers). Foucault also helped define to great precision the speed of light, providing a figure that is just 0.006% from the most precise number known today. See the pendulum at the Pantheon in this France Revisited video.

Birth of Gaston Laroux, creator of the Phantom
Author of The Phantom of the Opera (1910 for the book) and other fantastic tales and detective stories. He died in 1927.

Birth of Edmond Rostand, playwright of Cyrano
Born in Marseille, his play Cyrano de Bergerac has been a crowd-pleaser ever since it was first performed in 1897. He is also the author of L’Aiglon, a play about Napoleon’s son, first performed in 1900 with Sarah Bernhardt in the role of the young man. Rostand died in 1918 in Paris.

1918

Battles and Armistice ending the First World War

Millions more die in during the final year of fighting of the First World War before the armistice of Nov. 11, whose centennial will be commemorated this year. While Americans entered the war on the side of the Allies in 1917, their engagement on the front takes place in 1918, so several American war centennial commemorations will be held in France this year. You don’t need a commemoration, however, to visit the American WWI sights and cemeteries France such as the Escadrille Lafayette Memorial, those near Chateau-Thierry and those in the Meuse.

The “Spanish” flu
The flu pandemic known as the Spanish flu spans the globe, killing tens of millions in 1918 and 1919.

Other obituaries of 1918:
Composer Claude Debussy, poet Guillaume Apollinaire, playwright Edmond Rostand and aviator Roland Garros who was shot down during war and for whom the French Open tennis tournament is named.

1968

May 68
Analyzing the effect of May 68 and positioning oneself with respect to that era will be one of the top intellectual exercises and parlor games of France of the coming months. The labor, social and student movements of the spring of 1968 that are known as May 68 brought together the anger, the frustration, the calls for change and action, and the expression of anti-establishment and anti-authoritarian ideals of a multi-faceted group of students, laborers, leftists, anarchists, and others demanding greater freedoms, rights, power and justice. The Vietnam War was going on, “race riots” had become frequent in the United States, the Cold War thrived, the sexual revolution was underway, youth power had taken to the airwaves ad to the streets, Charles de Gaulle was president of France. There were massive strikes, barricades, joyful and intense disorder, slogans and demands everywhere, occupied buildings (most notably the Sorbonne and the Odeon Theater in Paris), a political crisis. An essential reference point in French history of the second half of the 20th century.

René Cassin receives the Nobel Peace Prize
Cassin (1887-1976) once said “The more I feel French, the more I feel human.” It was for feeling human that he received the Nobel Prize, or more specifically for his work in defining, defending and promoting human rights. He was one of the authors of the Universal Declaration of Human Right, developed by the United Nations by a commission presided by Eleanor Roosevelt and adopted in Paris in 1948. He served as the first president of the European Court of Human Rights. He is entombed in the Pantheon.

The full list from the High Committee for National Commemorations can be found here.  The Center for Historical Monuments publishes a book each year about the selected anniversaries.

© 2018, Gary Lee Kraut

The post Understanding France: National Commemorations of 2018 appeared first on France Revisited - Life in Paris, Travel in France.