With international travel restricted this year due to travel restrictions, that drawback allowed domestic France destinations to thrive amid the pandemic and to announce several high profile openings. SchengenVisaInfo.com reported.
According to the French Tourist Development Agency, Atout France, the following new openings and developments have been announced for the coming months of 2022:
- The Louvre lens
To mark its tenth anniversary, the Louvre in Lens City, which can be reached by high-speed train from Paris in about an hour, will host its regional branch of the Louvre Museum in Paris and thus present the following exhibitions:
- Rome (April 6th 2022 – July 25th 2022)
- Hieroglyphics (September 28, 2022 – January 16, 2023)
- Château Villers-Cotterets
The only castle from the French Renaissance region of Picardy will reopen in March 2022 and will also welcome the city of French in the first semester of 2023. In addition, this castle was Francois’ first favorite place to hunt. At the same time, François Rabelais stayed there, Molière presented his play Tartuffe, and the playwright Alexandre Dumas was born in Villers-Cotterêts.
- Burgundy capital Dijon
The International City of Gastronomy and Wine, Dijon, opens on April 22nd, 2022 and offers training courses including a Ferrandi cooking school, new shows and restaurants, four Michelin star hotels and a cinema complex.
- City of stained glass
The Cite du Vitrail, also known as Europe’s stained glass capital, showcases its Gothic churches with striking windows and the 18th century Hôtel-Dieu-le-Comte. The city will present stained glass from the 12th to the 21st century on over 32,000 square meters. It will also showcase the vibrant creativity of contemporary stained glass artists from across the region.
- Replica of the Cosquer cave
The 33,000-year-old Cosquer Cave, located in Minifjorden, will be open for visits, where visitors can admire 500 cave paintings depicting animals such as penguins, seals, jellyfish and mammals that are now extinct.
- UNESCO Man and Biosphere Program
France has been expanded to include another UNESCO-recognized site, the Martinique region, which was announced on September 5th this year. Visitors to this region can see the traditional Yole sailboat, volcanoes and forests at Mount Peele and the Pitons in northern Martinique.
Although travel was a challenge in 2021, several openings have been announced across France, including contemporary museum art such as the Bourse de Commerce | Pinault collection. In addition, the combination of modern and contemporary art expressed through the Royal Abbey Fontevraud and Bassins de Lumiere’s large digital exhibition has also been staged in four former WWII submarine basins.
