We love France. It is on of our favorite destinations on the planet and so we don’t need any particular reason to want to visit. But in 2022, there are a few events which may pique the interest of travelers.
The Louvre Lens—the first regional annex of the Louvre Museum in Paris, will mark its 10th anniversary with two major exhibits: Rome from April 6 to July 25, 2022 and Hieroglyphics from September 28, 2022 to January 16, 2023. Lens, which is located in Northern France, is easily accessible from Paris in a little over 1 hour by high-speed train.
Abandoned for decades, the only Renaissance castle in the Picardy Region of Northern France, Château Villers-Cotterets, will reopen to the public in March of 2022 fully restored. It was built by Francois 1er and completed in the mid-16th century because France’s Renaissance King enjoyed hunting in the area. A project initiated by French President Emmanuel Macron, it will also welcome in the first semester of 2023, the Cité de la Francophonie or the City of the French language, a center that will feature an exhibition hall and spaces for start-ups and French language workshops, plus artist residences. This apt symbolic choice was made because in 1539, François Ier signed the Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts, which made the use French in the acts of the administration and justice mandatory, instead of Latin. This link with the French language has endured over the centuries: François Rabelais stayed at the castle, Molière presented Tartuffe there, and Alexandre Dumas was born in Villers-Cotterêts.
Burgundy’s Capital, Dijon, will welcome the Cite Internationale de la gastronomie et du vin on April 22, 2022. The International City of Gastronomy & Wine is at the starting point of the region’s famed Wine route which runs from Dijon to Macon via Beaune. Among the highlights of this eco-friendly residential neighborhood will be the gastronomy & wine cultural and training center—featuring a Ferandi Cooking school, new shops & restaurants, a four-star hotel and a 13-screen cinema complex. Over half of the structures of this new 8.5 acre area will be comprised of repurposed and restored historical buildings.
The Champagne region will aptly pop a cork for the town of Troyes, jewel of the Aube Department known for centuries as the stained glass capital of Europe. Troyes, the birthplace of 11th century Rabbi and Talmud commentator Rashi, is also famed for its medieval quarter and its Gothic churches with striking windows. And next spring this lovely town will welcome the Cité du Vitrail. Housed in the magnificently restored 18th Century Hôtel-Dieu-le-Comte, the cité will dedicate over 32000 square feet to showcase stained glass works dating from the 12th to 21st centuries. It will also showcase the buoyant creativity of contemporary stained glass artists from across the region. The Aube department has recently unveiled a practical app featuring itineraries that lead visitors to the most impressive churches with their remarkable stained-glass windows.
In June La Villa Méditerranée—Marseille’s ultra-contemporary edifice on the old harbor, will welcome a replica of the remarkable underwater prehistoric cave known as the Grotte Cosquer. Visited by our ancestors as early as 33 thousand years ago, the actual cave is located in the mini-fjords between Cassis and Marseille known as Calanques, specifically in Triperie Calanque, near Cape Morgiou. The Grotte Cosquer replica will provide immersive and interactive experiences to discover the original cave’s 500 cave paintings depicting marine animals like penguins (talk about climate change!), plus seals and what seems to be jellyfish, and mammals that roamed about in that era.
