Beautiful battles in view with the mayors

Since two centuries at least, heritage advocates have sought to find him a social utility so that it is not just a bunch of old stones or indifferent to the many dusty tables. The revolution creates museums to show the people the confiscated works to the formerly aristos. Today, it offers to contemporary artists the jewel of the Louvre (Jan Fabre, last spring) or Versailles (Jeff Koons, 14 December), and the Minister of Culture, Christine Albanel, this wave surfing in deciding that the European heritage days will celebrate this weekend this union between "heritage and creation".

Jack Lang, then Culture Minister, had invented 25 years ago these days originally called "Open House", as a new form of invitation to the people to visit places that are usually closed. A day of heritage without the Elysee would no longer be a day of heritage.

The lovers of castles, manor houses and thatched cottages are now exploring a new path very "trendy": the defence of heritage is an integral part of sustainable development, ensure. It was the object of the great international symposium held in June at Unesco headquarters in Paris by the powerful association of old French homes (VMF) which thus celebrated its fiftieth anniversary with brightness.

The association of "heritage" with "sustainable" is obvious to the boundary of the play on words. What's more sustainable than a former building if there maintains it But the idea is broader and includes many sustainable development in all its human, economic and environmental aspects. The combative President of VMF, Philippe Toussaint, indignant that culture has been totally absent from topics to the Grenelle of the environment.

Is it to say that the owners of historic buildings become companions of the Greens The love of nature will bring them. Heritage advocates are interested only in the vicinity of monuments, but the landscape in General, therefore the planning. The second of the 15 proposals made by the VMF at the end of the Symposium (1) is to "fight against urban sprawl and anarchic urban development", in other words, the pavilions on the outskirts of towns and villages. A recent "affirmation" of the meeting of heritage associations insists on the evils of "urban sprawl" and sings the praises of the "social mix" in the old centres. Beautiful battles in view with the mayors. And problem not solved per metre square in downtown price.

However, the companionship of lovers of ancient stones with defenders of wildlife has its limits. One of the major pet peeves of the VMF and their friends are wind turbines, become to only the symbol of all nuisances which can spoil the view and tranquillity of all of us when he made the acquisition of a castle or a smaller secondary residence: towers, TGV, highway, campsites, mobile homes, caravans... The wind is the new enemy of the landscape. Older homes are not educated friends that feed into the anti-éoliennes folder in technical arguments and economic (the only wind that 20 of the time, it is a form of energy excessively subsidized, etc.) and that the Ministry of Culture "raises" the prefects.

Another point of friction with the defenders of the environment could be expanded in the debate on the texts of application of Grenelle of the environment: new energy standards for buildings should they be applicable to the historic building that has a proprietary interest

The architects of the buildings of France imagine dismayed the frames double glazing PVC, solar water heaters and photovoltaic panels disfiguring the rack they monitor. They are plenty of arguments. They say such studies overlap in the same category constructions in block of the 1960s with the thick walls of traditional buildings, energy balance is significantly less bad, and even its careful study could be rich inspiration for constructions of today.

In sustainable development, there is a "development" and thus, implicitly or explicitly, economic activity and employment. Heritage advocates think first of all craftsmen and companies who contribute to the maintenance and restoration of heritage (43,000 jobs based on the historical remains, another association, and the GMH, group of companies). And then everything goes wrong. The finances of the State being unfortunately is known, Government appropriations are dry to the point that the State does not assume its debts (EUR 600 million) and stop sites. In addition, global cap on tax niches Ortega threaten devices to owners of historic monuments even if Culture Minister rejected, she said, the threat of a specific Cap. Minister and associations dream of a new tax levy on games... The lack of money is very damaging to heritage itself. Simply take a stroll under the galleries of the Palais-Royal in Paris, almost under the Windows of the Minister of Culture, to be convinced. The lack of regularity in the expense may achieve in the heart "sustainability" of professions whose know-how is transmitted mainly by learning. An inventory of rare crafts is underway, which should include identifying those who are threatened with disappearance pure and simple.

That said, the most obvious contribution of heritage to the activity and employment is the attraction for tourists. The French did not ignore the interest that would have their country to stay the first tourist destination in the world. In a poll for VMF, they place the tourism development at the top of the "features" of the heritage. Heritage advocates are a little less enthusiastic. Beyond a certain threshold, the inflow of tourists became a threat to the tranquillity of the owners of beautiful homes, but the sites themselves more generally. The Director of the Centre of the world heritage of Unesco, Francesco Bandarin, said "concerned" by the doubling of world tourism forecast over the next fifteen years. The France try to anticipate. Thirty-two "sites" such as the pointe du Raz or the city of Carcassonne are part of a network of "major sites France", which the common belief is that a large tourism site application to be managed. In sum, the heritage to be sustainable, should not be too open...