Inaugurated on May 6, 2022 in Dijon (Côte-d’Or) in the presence of François Hollande – Emmanuel Macron, yet planned not being able to ” to liberate oneself -, the City of Gastronomy and Wine is also the work of Nicolas Sarkozy who only ate popcorn and drank Coca-Cola. A party idea? Visit.
Since May 6, 2022, the Dijon, French and foreign public can discover the City of Gastronomy and Wine, a project which aims to promote French gastronomy but also Dijon and Burgundy. A culmination after years of struggle to accommodate the project and against appeals. How did such a project come about and in what context when three other cities of gastronomy with complementary programs are more or less underway (in Lyon, Tours and Paris-Rungis)?
The first stone was laid in Dijon on July 4, 2019, after several years of hesitation. The elected President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, was to be received on Friday May 6 by François Rebsamen, the mayor of the city and ardent defender of the project which includes exhibition and tasting areas (cellar), a cooking school and pastry shop, a hotel, cinemas, restaurants and shops as well as a housing program, located on the 3.5 hectares of the former Hôtel-Dieu, near the historic center of the city. Alas, it was finally François Hollande who stuck to it. Hello the reunion between the two men!
This project involving 250 million euros in public and private investment began almost ten years ago after a call for projects launched by the State in 2012. Eiffage acted as project manager while Alain- Charles Perrot (chief architect of historical monuments) and Anthony Bechu (renovator of the Hôtel-Dieu in Marseille in 2013) shared the task of transforming the former enclave of the Dijon general hospital into a city of gastronomy and wine, resolutely contemporary and open to the city.
Contemporary? Certainly, judging by the break in scale of the most visible building, designed as a cannon of light – or a giant gateway for access to a jumbo jet. A powerful architectural gesture that has annoyed lovers of old stones, especially since it is clad in corten steel cladding and seems to be placed on stilts.
Oblique architecture in late homage to Claude Parent? Not really because the two floor levels accommodate the kitchen and pastry stations of the prestigious Ecole Ferrandi whose students must above all have their feet on the ground before dreaming of being selected by Top Chef. It is perhaps, moreover, the intention of Anthony Béchu, renowned gastronome, to want, through his gesture, to project on the big screen towards the city the idea of a necessary transparency of the training of cooks .
Transparency? This is not exactly the right term when we delve into the examination of the file at the origin of this achievement.
It is during the 5th session of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, in Nairobi (Kenya) on November 16, 2010, that UNESCO ruled favorably on the request made by France for the inscription of the ” Gastronomic meal of the French on the representative list created by the 2003 Convention. Intangible heritage, according to this convention, includes in particular the “ social practices, rituals and festive events ” and the ” know-how related to traditional craftsmanship “, insisting on the” transmission and renewal ».
Nothing was therefore explicitly aimed at the culinary arts and even less at gastronomy since the initial intention of Unesco was to rebalance for the benefit of the countries of the South the protection which had largely benefited for the past thirty years from countries with a rich architectural heritage or landscaped. This had not escaped the notice of the small group of researchers, gathered within the European Institute of Food History and Cultures (IEHCA) created in 2002 in Tours, its director Francis Chevrier, and Jean-Robert Pitte, then president of the Sorbonne, who, however, in the fall of 2006, announced their intention to examine the candidacy of French culinary heritage.
Unesco against McDonald’s
Was Unesco going to include French gastronomy in the intangible heritage of humanity? It would have been contrary to his ethics and his opposition to any commercial approach. This is how the choice of ” Gastronomic meal of the French as a customary social practice intended to celebrate special moments – family celebrations, successes, reunions – in the form of a “ festive meal during which the guests practice the art of eating well and drinking well “. It is this cultural dimension that won the support of Unesco experts, also insofar as this practice is indeed seriously threatened by the evolution of eating habits under the influence of the Anglo-Saxons.
The 2007 presidential election changed the situation. Only States can apply, it is the Elysée which has requested the application for registration. Some remember that President Sarkozy had enjoyed after his election, during a famous evening at Fouquet’s, a strange wedding cake, made up of puffed rice and sand roses – a heap of corn flakes coated with chocolate that the we teach children in kindergarten for Mother’s Day, and that he preferred Coca-Cola to classified growths. Worse, he had decided that official meals should not exceed 45 minutes.
He nevertheless decided to announce France’s candidacy on February 28, 2008 during a morning visit to the Salon de l’Agriculture. Which he did, adding ” moreover, we have the best gastronomy in the world! “His arrogance caused an outcry in Italy and nearly derailed the candidacy but, a few minutes after this declaration, and addressing a quidam who refused to shake his hand, Sarko exclaimed, in front of a television camera: “ Get out, you poor bastard! A planetary success which, in a way, stifled the nascent controversy. A short sentence with ultimately positive effects.
One of the essential criteria set by the 2003 convention for the inscription of an intangible element in the cultural heritage is the presentation of a management plan and safeguard measures to bring it to life, make it known, transmit it and promote it.
This management plan is subject to regular monitoring by Unesco, any breach of the stated commitments being liable to be sanctioned by deregistration. The Intergovernmental Committee was moved in the spring of 2012 by the commercial use of the inscription on the ICH (Intangible Cultural Heritage), used as a slogan in the campaign “So French, so Good” launched by the State Secretariat for Foreign Trade in favor of the export of products from the French agri-food industry.
Regretting a commercial aspect, foreign to its ethics, the UN body pointed out to France that the registration was not intended to ensure the promotion of commercial products.
In 2012, one or more cities of gastronomy?
In 2012, six cities – Dijon, Beaune, Lyon, Tours, Versailles and Chevilly-Larue associated with Rungis – applied to host the future Cité de la Gastronomie. This project, the main safeguard measure adopted by the international organization, was envisaged as a place without borders between learned culture and popular culture, between complementary fields and disciplines, in order, specify the officials of the MFPCA, ” to promote the cultural reconquest of our plates “. It would be a living space intended to celebrate, inform, share and transmit to as many people as possible a certain art of living. The State having refused to choose a single Cité de la Gastronomie, no doubt so as not to impose Paris, its choice fell on the four cities remaining in the running.
Each city had chosen to promote its assets on the basis of an open programme. Beaune and Versailles fairly quickly withdrew. Dijon has established its proposal on land backing onto the protected area of the old Saint-Esprit hospital and Notre-Dame-de-la-Charité, built by the Dukes of Burgundy. In Lyon, once consecrated as the capital of gastronomy by Curnonsky whose flame was kept alive by Paul Bocuse, the Cité de la gastronomie would come to occupy part of the Hôtel-Dieu, disused since the end of 2010, and would give cultural content to the project. current luxury hotel and shopping arcade. A first attempt was presented in 2018, which had to close its doors after a few months, the governance being ensured by a Spanish event agency!
Tours legitimately claimed to have, since 2006, supported the French candidacy by offering the prospect of land in the city center and then the Villa Rabelais.
It was up to Rungis, in the town of Chevilly-Larue, to refine its proposal. In addition to the powerful MIN of Rungis, the EPA ORSA which associates the State with the regional authorities, the Chamber of commerce and industry of Paris Val-de-Marne, this candidacy was supported by Bertrand Delanoë (PS), mayor of Paris , who perceived the future City as a place of action and cultural and educational mediation “. Preliminary studies have so far not been successful. The project is postponed after the 2024 Olympic Games on the pretext that metro line 14 will not yet be in service. Everything has to be done !
Syrian
From Syrus, read also
– Thwarted destinies, the unenviable fate of Ministers of Culture since 1959
– Secrets of architecture, small stories of architecture in the big
– Persian letters, considerations on architecture in the manner of Montesquieu
–
