Learning Site Management in the South of France

As an active member of the International Cultural Tourism Committee (ICTC) – one of some 20 committees within the International Council on Monuments and Sites  (ICOMOS) – I just participated in its highly informative three-day workshop at two phenomenal French sites.

Our committee consists of heritage architects and cultural heritage site planners and advisors, with a global membership and scope.  Our colleague and friend Anne Vourc’h, the Director of “Les Grandes Sites de France,” a network of important sites throughout France, hosted us.  She led us through visits and seminars at two very different types of sites.

We spent a full day at Pont du Gard, learning first and foremost that this magnificent site is misnamed.  The bridge over the Gardon River was added in 1742 to a 50-kilometer ancient Roman aqueduct, at the point where the Romans built a magnificent structure for the aqueduct to cross the river gorge.  The main structure we come to marvel at today is not the 18^th century bridge but the ancient aqueduct.  We really should be calling the site the Nime Aqueduct, not the Pont du Gard.

When my wife Tina and I first visited the site some fifteen years ago, we drove to a point very near the structure.  Today, the 1.4 million annual visitors park just back from it and now have the opportunity to learn about the aqueduct from one of the finest interpretation centers most of us have seen anywhere.

Recent management decisions have improved the visitor experience, encouraged repeat visits from local and regional visitors, and have enhanced the financial sustainability of the site.  Changes include an annual pass for local visitors who come not only to marvel at the aqueduct, but to swim in the river and stroll the extensive park; to charge motorcoaches on a per person basis instead of one flat fee; and to create all-inclusive pricing for visitors.  Visitors are staying longer and spending more, enhancing revenues for the site, but getting more for what they spend.

Next steps for enhanced site management will focus on encouraging visitation outside the three summer months when half the annual visitors appear.

Saint Guilhem de le Desert is a very different type of heritage site; it is a district with a variety of attractions and activities.  But most of the 600,000 annual visitors find their way up the narrow road through the gorge to the charming town.  Cars had been choking the road and the village during the peak season, so in recent years a shuttle system was successfully introduced where visitors pay merely 4 Euros per day to park, then ride a shuttle 4 kilometers to the charming village.  Better yet, they can rent canoes, kayaks, and bicycles,

Site managers and regional planners have done a phenomenal job at developing paths, the shuttle parking lot, a visitors center, bridges, and all infrastructure elements to blend harmoniously into the beautiful natural environment.  And a recently opened museum/interpretation center provides and exceptional education on the local heritage of pottery-making.

I’ve got a long list of ideas to put into practice into the many projects we’re involved in the next two years in Latin American, Southeast Asia, and elsewhere.  Shuttle systems are top of mind for me, as many sites around the world would benefit greatly by following the practice many have adopted to limit motorized vehicles in congested areas.

The TGV train I’m writing this on is moving fast…..we’ll be in Paris soon, ready for the weeklong ICOMOS General Assembly.  More learning and networking to come!