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TOURISM

France’s most loved monuments revealed

Tens of thousands of French TV viewers have voted for their favourite monument and on Tuesday it was revealed that a stunning belfry in a northern French town had scooped the award. Here's a look at the top four.

Published: 16 September 2015 13:42 CEST
France's most loved monuments revealed
Can you recognise France's favourite monument? Photo: Tourisme de Arras/Flickr

France is not short of stunning monuments but how many of you have visited, or even heard of the Belfry in the town of Arras?

Not only is it part of an Unesco World Heritage site but the striking building is also the new owner of the title “France’s favourite monument 2015”.

It was crowned the winner of the award on France 2 TV on Tuesday night as the programme “Le Monument prefere des Francais” reached a climax.

The Belfry in Arras saw off some stiff competition from some of the country's most treasured but perhaps least heard of landmarks. 

Around 130,000 votes were cast but the Belfry came out the clear winner, thanks in part to a huge social media campaign.

“This award is a great pride for the town,” said the mayor of Arras Frédéric Leturque. “In the northern cities the Belfry plays a particular role, it is the symbol of the Republic and democracy. The monument is in the heart of the city and the life of the city takes place around it.

“It’s a wonderful recognition that will enhance social cohesion.”

Presenter of the show Stéphane Bern hopes the award will boost tourism in Arras, pointing out that up until the town is often just a place visitors pass  through.

The Town Hall hopes the publicity surrounding the Belfry will persuade people to at least spend a night in the town.

The decision to build the Belfry was taken back in 1463, but it was not completed until 91 years later. The 75-metre Gothic tower stands above the Town Hall in Arras and peers over the town’s famous Place des Héros.

The Belfry was destroyed by bombs in 1914 but it was rebuilt “brick by brick” by the determined people of Arras.

Visitors who are not fearful of heights can climb to the top of the Belfry to get magnificent views over Arras and the nearby countryside.

In second place came the spectacular Roman Catholic Cathedral in Puy-en-Velay, in the Auvergne region of central France. In 1998 it was made part of an Unesco World Heritage site that came under the umbrella of pilgrimage sites in France on the way to Santiago de Compostela.

And in third place was the Gare Maritime de Cherbourg, located at the top of Cotentin peninsular in Normandy, that used to be the end of the rail line from Paris Gare St Lazare. In its hey day thousands of passengers would disembark boats and head into the French capital by train, via the Gare Maritime.

And in fourth were the medieval ramparts around the Brittany town of St Malo that protect the town from the sea. The ramparts are one of the reasons St Malo is such a popular tourist attraction.


(Photo: Corinne Queme/Flickr)

And lastly, here is the winner from last year's Favourite French Monument, the Monastère royal de Brou in Bourg-en-Bresse, south east France.

The programme was hit by tragedy earlier this year when a girl died during the filming of the show at the CapFerret lighthouse. 

As a result the lighthouse on the Atlantic coast was withdrawn from the running.

A full list of the entries is below.

– ALSACE / Le Palais Rohan – Strasbourg

– AUVERGNE / La cathédrale Notre-Dame – Le Puy-en-Velay

– BASSE-NORMANDIE / La Gare Maritime Transatlantique – Cherbourg

– BOURGOGNE / Le château de Bazoches

– BRETAGNE / Les remparts de Saint-Malo

– CENTRE / Le château d’Ussé – Rigny-Ussé

– CHAMPAGNE-ARDENNE / La Croix de Lorraine et le Mémorial Charles de Gaulle 

  Colombey-Les-Deux-Eglises

– CORSE / La citadelle de Calvi – Calvi

–  FRANCHE-COMTE / La chapelle Notre-Dame-du-Haut de Le Corbusier  – Ronchamp

– HAUTE-NORMANDIE / L’Abbaye de Jumièges – Jumièges

– ILE-DE-France / L’Hôtel national des Invalides – Paris

– LANGUEDOC-ROUSSILLON / Le canal de la Robine – Narbonne

– LIMOUSIN / Le château et Haras national de Pompadour – Arnac-Pompadour

– LORRAINE / Le Moulin de la Blies – Musée des techniques faïencières – Sarreguemines

– MIDI-PYRÉNÉES / Le viaduc de Millau – Millau

– NORD-PAS-DE-CALAIS / Le beffroi d’Arras

– PAYS-DE-LA-LOIRE / Le passage Pommeraye – Nantes

– PICARDIE / Le baliseur Somme II – Saint-Valery-sur-Somme

– POITOU-CHARENTES / La place forte de Brouage – Hiers-Brouage

– PROVENCE-ALPES-CÔTE-D’AZUR / La basilique Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde – Marseille

– RHONE-ALPES / La caverne du Pont d’Arc – Vallon-Pont-d’Arc

 

 

 

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TRAVEL NEWS

Why are fewer British tourists visiting Spain this year?

Almost 800,000 fewer UK holidaymakers have visited Spain in 2023 when compared to 2019. What’s behind this big drop?

Published: 23 August 2023 11:36 CEST
Updated: 26 August 2023 18:32 CEST
Why are fewer British tourists visiting Spain this year?

Spain welcomed 12.2 million UK tourists between January and July 2023, 6 percent less when compared to the same period in 2019, according to data released on Monday by Spanish tourism association Turespaña.

This represents a decrease of 793,260 British holidaymakers for Spain so far this year.

Conversely, the number of Italian (+8 percent), Irish (+15.3 percent), Portuguese (+24.8 percent), Dutch (+4 percent) and French tourists (+5 percent) visiting España in 2023 are all above the rates in 2019, the last pre-pandemic year. 

German holidaymakers are together with their British counterparts the two main nationalities showing less interest in coming to Spanish shores.

Britons still represent the biggest tourist group that comes to Spain, but it’s undergoing a slump, with another recent study by Caixabank Research suggesting numbers fell particularly in June 2023 (-12.5 percent of the usual rate). 

READ ALSO: Spain fully booked for summer despite most expensive holiday prices ever

So are some Britons falling out of love with Spain? Are there clear reasons why a holiday on the Spanish coast is on fewer British holiday itineraries?

According to Caixabank Research’s report, the main reasons are “the poor macroeconomic performance of the United Kingdom, the sharp rise in rates and the weakness of the pound”.

This is evidenced in the results of a survey by British market research company Savanta, which found that one in six Britons are not going on a summer holiday this year due to the UK’s cost-of-living crisis.

Practically everything, everywhere has become more expensive, and that includes holidays in Spain: hotel stays are up 44 percent, eating out is 13 percent pricier, and flights are 40 percent more on average. 

READ ALSO: How much more expensive is it to holiday in Spain this summer?

Caixabank stressed that another reason for the drop in British holidaymakers heading to Spain is that those who can afford a holiday abroad are choosing “more competitive markets” such as Turkey, Greece and Portugal. 

And there’s no doubt that the insufferably hot summer that Spain is having, with four heatwaves so far, has also dissuaded many holidaymakers from Blighty from overcooking in the Spanish sun. 

With headlines such as “This area of Spain could become too hot for tourists” or “tourists say it’s too hot to see any sights” featuring in the UK press, budding British holidaymakers are all too aware of the suffocating weather conditions Spain and other Mediterranean countries are enduring. 

Other UK outlets have urged travellers to try out the cooler Spanish north rather than the usual piping hot Costa Blanca and Costa del Sol destinations.

Another UK poll by InsureandGo found that 71 percent of the 2,000+ British respondents thought that parts of Europe such as Spain, Greece and Turkey will be too hot to visit over summer by 2027.

There’s further concern that the introduction in 2024 of the new (and delayed) ETIAS visa for non-EU visitors, which of course now also applies to UK nationals, could further compel British tourists to choose countries to holiday in rather than Spain.

READ MORE: Will British tourists need to pay for a visa waiver to enter Spain?

However, a drop in the number of British holidaymakers may not be all that bad for Spain, even though they did spend over €17 billion on their Spanish vacations in 2022. 

Towns, cities and islands across the country have been grappling with the problem of overtourism and the consequences it has on everything from quality of life for locals to rent prices. 

READ ALSO: ‘Beach closed’ – Fake signs put up in Spain’s Mallorca to dissuade tourists

The overcrowded nature of Spain’s beaches and most beautiful holiday hotspots appears to be one of the reasons why Germans are visiting Spain in far fewer numbers. A recent report in the country’s most read magazine Stern asked “if the dream is over” in their beloved Mallorca.

Spanish authorities are also seeking to overhaul the cheaper holiday package-driven model that dominates many resorts, which includes moving away from the boozy antics of young British and other European revellers.

Fewer tourists who spend more are what Spain is theoretically now looking for, and the rise in American, Japanese and European tourists other than Brits signify less of a dependence on the British market, one which tends to maintain the country’s tourism status quo for better or for worse.

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