Partner of the 40th edition of the European Heritage Days on September 16 and 17, France Télévisions aims to focus not so much on “old stones” as on those who invest tirelessly to save them. To give them a well-deserved tip of the hat, but also, why not, to encourage vocations.
Starting with Villefranche-de-Conflent (Pyrénées-Orientales), a small town fortified by Vauban which has the particularity of housing a partially fortified cave, the Cova Bastera, bought by Philippe Lopez, a daring entrepreneur, who wishes to make it the first cave theme of France by installing a herd of animated dinosaurs. He intends to create a “wow effect” and attract visitors – out of the 65,000 caves in France, only 63 welcome the public. Cost: 400,000 euros for the cave and the same for the allosaurs, smilodons and other robotic velociraptors…
In Duclair (Seine-Maritime), Nicolas Navarro, construction gloves and spatula in hand, is nothing like the lord of fairy tales. His parents fell in love with the near-ruined Château de Taillis when he was little, and spent their lives restoring it – of the 45,000 châteaux in France, 83% are privately owned. He started at 18. At 41, he continued through the fall and winter, then rented it out for private events in the spring and opened it to the public in the summer. In order to cover its costs, and to be able to pay 80,000 euros to repair the roof.
“Lucky business”
If the cameras mainly follow these two “construction sites”, they also introduce us to three other characters. First Kléber Rossillon, who has made the profitability of historic monuments his profession. He embodies the pro of the group, whether at the bedside of a small steam train in Ardèche or at one of the twelve heritage sites for which he works.
Then came the investor Michel Hochard, who acquired, in Boyardville (Charente-Maritime), the Maisonheureuse, hosting holiday camps, to restore it and resell it in batches to individuals – a subject which would have deserved more rigorous treatment –, then Patrice Besse, specialist in religious heritage, rescuer of the church of Crusnes (Meurthe-et-Moselle), built with metal extracted from the mine, before its closure at the end of the last century.
In the commentary, the voice-over systematically emphasizes the desire of the owners to transform their site into a “lucrative business”, two recurring words, forgetting the dream, the passion and the material constraints. Classification as a historic monument thus requires, in particular, the use of craftsmen recognized by the State. Nicolas Navarro has fun with it. This year he “offered” himself the services of a painter, Eric – “Madness! For a month and a half” – like others would treat themselves to a piece of jewelry or a car.