The French Ministry of Culture presents the Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe on its website, under the heading “Protections, labels and designations”, which can be accessed from the home page via the “Aides et démarches” tab.
The interactive map of the Cultural Routes that pass through France is also now available on this page dedicated to the programme, its modalities, the advantages of certification and the procedure for applying for the label.
This digital map is the result of extensive work carried out by the World Heritage Mission within the Ministry of Culture, in partnership with those responsible for the routes that cross the country, in order to collect precise and geolocalised data for all the partners involved, the sites crossed and the routes accessible. This data has been integrated into the Ministry of Culture’s “places database”, which already lists more than 71,000 cultural sites and assets that have been awarded a label, are protected or depend on the Ministry. The aim is to “connect” the data provided by the people in charge of the 30 routes to the tangible and intangible, cultural and artistic, educational and pedagogical heritage data of the Ministry of Culture.
It is possible to click on each of the thirty itineraries to access the detailed interactive map of each itinerary, whether it is a route, an archipelago of sites linked together by a common theme or a single site.
The user thus has access to extremely precise maps, complete with photographs and descriptions of all the sites and partners on each of the 30 routes proposed.
In addition to the Council of Europe’s Cultural Routes Programme (ICCE), the user can also consult information on the systems of heritage protection in France: as “Historic Monuments” or “Remarkable Heritage Sites”; the “Musée de France” designation; the “Remarkable Garden”, “Houses of the Illustrious”, “Town and Country of Art and History”, “Remarkable Contemporary Architecture” and “the European Heritage Label” labels.
France has been a member of the Enlarged Partial Agreement on Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe (EPA) since 2011, and among its founding member States. Today, France is the European country with the largest number of Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe, counting 32 Cultural Routes crossing the country and 14 Cultural Routes having their headquarters across the country.
Mr. Bruno FAVEL, Head of the World Heritage Mission, Directorate General of Heritage and Architecture of Ministry of Culture, and Ms. Orane PROISY, Head of the European Heritage Projects and Networks Department of Ministry of Culture, are the national representatives of France to the EPA on Cultural Routes.
Source: Council of Europe