Men and women who built France

THIS year’s open doors days in France, the Journées Européenes du Patrimoine, will look at the men and women behind the chateaux, canals, churches and transport network of France.

Held on September 18 and 19, the weekend has as its theme the great people who have made history; buildings such as Vauban’s impregnable fortresses, the Abbey of Mont Saint Michel, and the castle where Leonardo da Vinci spent his last days will be opened to all-comers.

Louis XIV’s magnificent chateau of Versailles topped the visitor list last year, followed by the Sénat in Marie de Médici’s Palais du Luxembourg, the offices and studios of France TV, the Arc de Triomphe, the Elysée and the Panthéon.

Thousands of Paris commuters were able to see the inner workings of the Régie Autonome des Transports Parisiens (RATP) when the transport network opened up its workshops. This year, it marks the 100th anniversary of the Porte de la Chapelle/Mairie d’Issy line with a display of old rolling stock at Porte de Versailles station.

Among the attractions outside the capital that are open to the public are the house in Nohant (Indre) where novelist George Sand (née Amantine Dupin) grew up and died in 1876; the chateau of Clos Lucé in Amboise, where Leonardo da Vinci spent his last years; and the Rhône-Alpes chateau of Grignan, where Madame de Sévigné sent hundreds of letters documenting the era of the Sun King.

Politicians and soldiers are also remembered: the birthplace in Lille of Charles de Gaulle and his home in Colombey-les-Deux-Eglises in Champagne-Ardennes is open as is Napoleon’s birthplace in Ajaccio in Corsica.

One exceptional event in the Alpes-Maritimes will be the opening of the Fort du Mont Alban, perched on the ridge that separates Nice from Villefranche. Built in the 1550s, it was a forerunner of the high-walled fortresses that Vauban would build along France’s borders in the 1700s, and indeed in Villefranche itself.

Even older is the Château de Colombières in Basse-Normandy, which dates to the 11th century and has links to William the Conqueror. The oldest visible section is from the 14th century and the chateau has guided tours on both Saturday and Sunday.

Elsewhere, you can visit the Figeac, Lot museum to Jean-François Champollion, the man who deciphered the Rosetta Stone; you can roam the towers and battlements of Carcassonne; or you can pay your respects at the Gurs concentration camp at Route d’Oloron, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, where 24,000 Jews were held under the Pétain regime.

www.journeesdupatrimoine.culture.fr