UNESCO World Heritage Sites in France, Episode 269
Join Us in France Travel Podcast
Annie Sargent
4.8 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 2 February 2020
⏱️ 60 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Annie and Elyse discuss UNESCO World Heritage sites in France, that they are and why it matters. France has 44 sites inscribed on the list and several more are in the process of applying.
Some UNESCO Word Heritage sites in France are man-made and others are natural sites. The fortified city of Carcassonne is one of the man-made sites while the Gulf of Porto in Corsica is a natural site.
Some UNESCO sites are very well defined (Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris) others are harder to describe (the banks of the River Seine for example). Some are extremely famous (the Pont du Gard) and others not as much (the fortifications of Vauban).
Getting listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site can have a big impact on a site. A great example of that is the city center of Albi. It was a bit of a sleepy town for a long time and since getting listed it get large numbers of visitors.
The city center of Toulouse between the Saint Sernin Basilica and the Pont Neuf should probably be listed. But there are still some small medieval streets in that area that haven't been renovated in a long time and don't look great.
What does it mean to be a UNESCO World Heritage site in France?
UNESCO World Heritage sites must meet several criteria on a list of 10 that we discuss briefly. Then candidates must submit an application that details why they think they qualify.
In France it is cities and Departments that decide to make such applications with the help of their region. The national government doesn't get involved officially
#joinusinfrance #UNESCO #unescoworldheritage #unescosite #unescoheritagesite #unescoworldheritagecity #unescowordheritage #unescoworldculturalheritage
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is in France episode 269. |
| 0:04.0 | Bonjou, I'm Annie Sergeant and on the podcast today I bring you a great conversation with |
| 0:10.0 | Elise on UNESCO World Heritage Sites. This was suggested by a listener and I thought, oh great idea, |
| 0:17.0 | I hadn't thought of that. We talk about why they matter and some of the ones you might want to see in France and also in the south of France where we you know we see them more so we know them. |
| 0:28.0 | I am off to Paris tomorrow to map out and produce my Saint-Germain-de-Pray voice map tour and for details go to |
| 0:37.3 | join us in France.com for sash audio tours. Show notes for this episode are on Join Us in France.com |
| 0:44.8 | forward slash 269 the number 269 and if you're planning a trip to France the site |
| 0:51.6 | is chock fullfull of great resources. You should check it out. the Oh, great. Bonsieur Elise. |
| 1:27.0 | Bonsieur Annie. |
| 1:29.0 | How are you on this beautiful sunny day? |
| 1:32.0 | I am fine. Oh good really. We're talking about |
| 1:35.6 | UNESCO World Heritage Sites in well in general in general and specifically in France. |
| 1:44.0 | Right. Specifically all of France are the southwest. |
| 1:47.0 | I thought we'd go over a general idea of all of them in the sense of explaining a little bit what they are and where they are and |
| 1:54.1 | then we can talk about the ones we know in the southwest here. |
| 1:57.4 | Excellent. |
| 1:58.4 | How's that? |
| 1:59.4 | All right, take it away, woman. |
| 2:00.4 | Okay, so I know that we often spend time explaining that these are great places to visit |
| 2:07.1 | when they're marked as world UNESCO heritage sites, but of facts, of course, as you did say to me and I realized you were right, many people |
| 2:16.8 | don't know what that means. |
| 2:18.6 | And so it impresses us, but we think that's a good selling point for going to see something right but some people go okay so what whatever you know really okay |
... |
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