Champagne wants to be UNESCO-heritage

Champagne has announced its candidacy for the list of world heritage of UNESCO. Said the organisation of the champagne business, the CIVC, at its general assembly last week. During more than one year a series of experts have collected information for a dossier, that supports the candidacy.

The famous sites of the list includes 830 sites in 138 of the worlds countries, amongst them the Versailles at Paris, the Cambodian temple Angkor Vat and Hamlet's castle in Denmark, Kronborg. More in my entry of last year.

According to our local newspaper, l'Union, the first rival of Champagne is Burgundy. Now, I don't know if it is a matter of competition to join the UNESCO-list - I hope not - it may be of some help that Burgundy has a university that performs research in the field of culture and vineyards (PDF-file in French).

CIVC follows, of course, but what a pity, that it is not the university in Reims who works in this field. Instead I hope that the experts of the CIVC will be succesfull in their efforts to turn the candidacy into a full membership.

The cultural heritage of Champagne does deserve both recognition and acknowledgement. I just cross my fingers, that an achieved membership would lead to new enthusiasm and inventiveness in the region rather than to sanctify what is already quite conservative into complete petrification. That would be just about the last thing this already very traditional and old-fashioned society needs.

På dansk

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