On Thursday the 6th of June 2025, the annual congress of the Remarkable Sites and Cities of France network was held at the Institut du Monde in Paris. It was an opportunity to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Ville et Pays d'Art et d'Histoire (Town and Country of Art and History) label, to take stock of its achievements and share future prospects, as well as to discuss the issue of vacant and dilapidated housing.
A decentralised label awarded by the French Ministry of Culture, the network includes 210 areas labelled Towns and Regions of Art and History, both in mainland France and in the French overseas territories.
The VPAH label enables areas to engage in projects and progress that benefit residents and, more broadly, contribute to a dynamic of regional revitalisation with a focus on promoting tourism and culture. It thus becomes a development tool for local authorities and a means of connecting with residents through heritage.
/ Heritage as a resource
Among the many points raised during the day, several echoed the ACCR's concerns: considering heritage as a resource for better living together and social cohesion, paying attention to the quality of life of residents, working closely with local actors and residentsin order to promote ownership and acceptance, broad consideration of what constitutes heritage, questioning the transmission of heritage, heritage as a vehicle for recognition and pride, etc.
Discussions emphasised the need to defend heritage, both cultural and built, and to ensure its continuity. Heritage and culture are not adjustable variables but are fundamental to citizenship and acts of resistance in the face of extreme narratives. Transmission is at the heart of the network's approach.
With regard to the question of the appropriation of heritage by residents, the VPAH network is working on the concepts of cooperation, reciprocity and dialogue, as demonstrated by the examples cited in 2024 during a workshop dedicated to mobilising people.
Through its proximity to the local area, the VPAH label helps to explain and raise awareness of the resources provided and enabled by heritage and, as a result, works to promote the acceptability of large-scale projects and the constraints imposed by conservation measures.
/ Housing: vacancy and renovation
This conference focused on vacant and dilapidated housing in old town centres. The Sites et Cités Remarquables network is mobilising on this issue and deploying strategies to tackle both the housing crisis and the ecological crisis.
In fact, 80% of the housing needed in 2050 already exists. The aim is to restore, maintain and enhance this housing stock and to rethink its surroundings in order to meet the expressed needs of future residents and thus combat substandard housing.
In response to the more than one million homes that have been vacant for more than two years, as recorded in 2020, the Ministry for Ecological Transition and Territorial Cohesion has launched the National Plan to Combat Vacant Housing, in partnership with the local authority association ‘Agir contre le logement vacant’ (Action against Vacant Housing). This plan is based on several key initiatives alongside the Zero Vacant Housing platform. These include helping local authorities and operators to identify, contact and support owners of vacant housing until it is put on the market.
Renovating and putting these homes back on the market also addresses environmental issues, particularly those relating to land artificialisation and the occupation of new land.