IJASTE – International Journal of Applied Sciences in Tourism and Events Vol.2 No.

2 December 2018

CULTURAL TOURISM: FRENCH ATTRACTIONS

email: [email protected], [email protected],

ABSTRACT
This is an article about some famous tourist attractions in France according to the
academic subject “cultural tourism”. It is a subject which is a point of interest for us
because it is part of a patrimony and culture. It seems that it can be useful for
Indonesian people to know a little bit of a French culture. It is hoped it will give the
desire to come and visit France. In order to write this article, we first used our personal
knowledge of those tourist attractions that we have already visited several times for
some of them. To complete those information and adjust some details, we read some
press articles and use each tourist attraction official websites. In this article, we will
present four famous tourist attractions: two in Paris, one in Normandy and one in
Bordeaux. They are The Château Pape Clément, The Mont Saint Michel, The Eiffel
Tower, and the Palace of Versailles.

Keywords: cultural tourism, attractions, tourists, French.

INTRODUCTION
France is the world’s most popular tourist destination receiving 82 million
foreign tourists annual. Visitors are attracted by historic cities, a beautiful countryside,
the castles of the Loire Valley, and Brittany and Normandy. The country concentrates
many cultural tourist attractions, not only in the capital, Paris. In this article we chose
to present four tourist attractions well-known for several reasons: The Château Pape
Clément, The Mont Saint Michel, The Eiffel Tower, and the Palace of Versailles.

METHODS
In order to write this article, we first used our personal knowledge of those
tourist attractions that we have already visited several times for some of them. To
complete those information and adjust some details, we read some press articles and
use each tourist attraction official websites. Some books and researches are also
reviewed to strengthen related statements.

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DISCUSSION
First of all, we chose one of the most famous tourist attraction in the region
of Bordeaux, especially for wine lovers: the Château Pape Clément.
Château Pape Clément is one of the oldest Grands Crus of Bordeaux. His
vineyard was implemented in the XIIth century by Bertrand de Goth, younger of a
noble family from Bordeaux region. Bertrand de Got became Pope in 1305 under the
name of Clement V. This is where the Château inherited its name from and its wine
became an icon.
Located in Pessac, a few kilometers from Bordeaux, the vineyard of 63 ha
covers a mixture of gravelly-sandy soils and clay-limestone soils. Separation of berries
from their stalks is done entirely by hand. The accuracy of wine-winemaking
techniques applied to Château Pape Clément rewarded the area of accreditation and
Terra Vitis HVE3.
The Château Pape Clément is a famous French attraction in the region of
Bordeaux. Its wine is Classified in AOC Pessac Léognan. The Chateau offers to
visitors tasting tours in French and English with visit of the cellars and tasting of wines.
Château Pape Clément welcomes also companies for seminars as well as exceptional
stays with its five luxury rooms.

Figure 1
The Château Pape Clément in the region of Bordeaux.

The second tourist attraction is the Mont Saint Michel, one of Europe’s most
unforgettable sights. Its located in Normandy, in North-West of France. From 966, the
dukes of Normandy and French kings supported the development of a major abbey
on the Mont Saint Michel. The abbey became a renowned center of learning, attracting

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some of the greatest minds in Europe. The ramparts at the base of the island were
built to keep English forces out. Other fine buildings went up along the steep village
street, now they are converted into museums, hotels, restaurants and boutiques for
today’s tourists. The abbey was turned into a prison during the days of the French
Revolution and needed to be restored before the end of the 19th century.
In the year 1966, a religious community moved back perpuating prayers, and
welcome the original vocation of this place. Many pilgrimages have Mont Saint Michel
as arrival.
UNESCO has classed the Mont Saint Michel as a world heritage in 1979 and
this Mecca of tourism welcomes more than 2,5 million visitors a year. To go there, you
can book a special horse-drawn carriage or you can walk all the way from the car
parks, contemplating the full magnificence of the Mont Saint Michel as you approach.

Figure 2
The Mont Saint Michel in Normandy, North-West of France.

The third attraction is the Eiffel Tower. The Eiffel tower history represents a
part of national heritage. It's as been the symbol of France and Paris for decades. But
when Gustave Eiffel, the man who built the Tower, achieved its construction in 1889,
the tower was only meant to be temporary in the Parisian landscape and was far from
being the Parisians’ favorite landmark. In commemoration of the 100th anniversary of
the French Revolution, a competition was organized with the aim to “build on the
Champ-de-Mars an iron tower with a square base, 125 meters wide and 300 meters
high.” Out of the 107 proposals submitted, Gustave Eiffel’s was chosen. At the time,
many were against the building because they found it not beautiful.

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When the project came to be built, it had been established that the licensing
rights linked to the convention for the tower’s construction would last only 20 years,
followed by imminent destruction. However, two million people visited the
Tower during the Universal Exposition. Following this incredible success, the
buildingbecame a symbol of French industrial power. The Tower was as equally as
successful during the 1900 Universal Exposition. Determined to avoid the Tower’s
destruction, Gustave Eiffel went to great lengths to prove its scientific utility. Scientific
experiments were conducted in the fields of astronomy and physiology but what would
really save the Tower in the end was its use as a radio antenna tower, first for military
communications and then for permanent, radiotelegraphy communications; in fact, the
Tower served many a purpose during the First World War. The Eiffel Tower is part of
the French history.
Every year approximately seven million visitors climb the Tower. Its success
is such that many countries all over the world have replicated the Tower more or less
identically to the original one.

Figure 3
The Eiffel Tower as a symbol of France and Paris.

Finally, the fourth attraction is the Palace of Versailles. It’s a royal castle in
Versailles, located 20 kilometers from Paris.
Versailles was the seat of political power in the Kingdom of France from 1682,
when King Louis XIV moved the royal court from Paris, until the royal family was forced

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to return to the capital in October 1789, within three months after the beginning of the
French Revolution. Versailles is therefore famous not only as a building, but as a
symbol of the system of absolute monarchy of the Old Regime. It’s now open as a
museum and it’s a very popular tourist attraction. The floor area of the palace is about
13,74 acres. There are 700 rooms.
Building the castle and maintaining the court there was phenomenally
expensive, but did a good deal to establish the dominance of French style and taste
in the whole of Europe, giving French luxury manufacturing advantages that long
outlasted the fall of the Old Regime.
Versailles is also the « Grand Trianon », which is the private residence of the
king and many gardens with a total area of 830 hectares.
The palace of Versailles is a popular tourist destination, attracting seven
million visitors a year. It’s the most visited site in France, after the Louvre Museum and
before the Eiffel Tower. The palace is on the UNESCO World Heritage List. It’s one of
the greatest achievement in French 17th century.

Figure 4
The Palace of Versailles in Versailles, Paris.

CLOSING
France is very popular for cultural tourism. The Mont Saint Michel, the
Versailles Palace, the Château Pape Clément, and the Eiffel Tower are the most
visited sightseeing in the country. The French history made the cultural tourism in
France. In every city you can find a monument which symbolize a part of the history.

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Don’t miss to learn and to understand a bit of French history if you come to visit these
places.
There are so many ways to understand what culture means (Mudana, ed,
2003). However, the condition of cultural tourism in France is a bit different from we
find in Bali. In France, most of the cultural tourism products are represented by
physical cultures. The practices of cultural tourism in Bali are dominated by various
products of art, especially traditional music and dances (Mudana, 2000; Mudana and
Ardini, 2013). This fact almost always makes the tourists want to repeat their travelling
to Bali (Sutama, Mudana, and Astawa, 2017). Formally, this tourism paradigm is
initiated by Peraturan Daerah (Perda or local decree) Number 3 Year 1974 on Cultural
Tourism (Picard, 2006). So that Bali until now has more various tourist attractions, as
this province has “a thousand temples” (seribu pura), the most popular is Besakih
Temple as the Mother Temple, beside a new icon named Garuda Wisnu Kencana
statue (Kompas, Sunday, 29 July 2018, p. 28) near Politeknik Negeri Bali campuss in
Jimbaran Hill.

REFERENCES
Kompas. 2018. ’’Ikon Baru Bali’’ (Avontur/Foto Pekan Ini), Sunday, 29 July, p. 28.
Mudana, I Gede. 2000. ’’Industrialisasi Pariwisata Budaya di Bali: Studi Kasus Biro
Perjalanan Wisata di Kelurahan Kuta’’, master thesis, Program of Cultural
Studies, Universitas Udayana
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Mudana, I Gede (ed). 2003. Pemahaman Budaya di Tengah Perubahan. Denpasar:
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Mudana, I Gede; Ardini, Ni Wayan. 2013. “The Art(s) in the Context of Cultural Tourism
Industrialization in Bali”, Mudra Jurnal Seni Budaya, Volume 28, Number 3,
December 2013 (http://drive.google.com/file/d/OB-
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Picard, Michel. 2006. Bali: Pariwisata Budaya dan Budaya Pariwisata. Jakarta:
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Sutama, I Ketut; Mudana, I Gede; Astawa, I Ketut. 2017. “Balinese Culture and Repeat
Visitors to Bali”, International Journal of Applied Sciences in Tourism and
Events, Volume 1, Number 2, June. Available at:

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