Recollections of France

Since the 1980s, France has experienced a vigorous revival of interest in its past and cultural heritage. This has been expressed as part of a movement of remembering through museums and festivals as well as via elaborate commemorations, most notably those held to celebrate the bi-centenary of the Revolution in 1989 and can be interpreted as part of a re-examinaton of what it means to be French in the context of ongoing Europeanization. This study brings together scholars from multidisciplinary backgrounds and engages them in debate with professionals from France, who are working in the fields of museology, heritage and cultural production. Addressing subjects such as war and memory, gastronomy and regional identity, maritime culture and urban societies, they throw fresh light on the process by which France has been conceptualized and packaged as a cultural object.

Since the 1980s, France has experienced a vigorous revival of interest in its past and cultural heritage. This has been expressed as part of a movement of remembering through museums and festivals as well as via elaborate commemorations, most notably those held to celebrate the bi-centenary of the Revolution in 1989 and can be interpreted as part of a re-examinaton of what it means to be French in the context of ongoing Europeanization. This study brings together scholars from multidisciplinary backgrounds and engages them in debate with professionals from France, who are working in the fields of museology, heritage and cultural production. Addressing subjects such as war and memory, gastronomy and regional identity, maritime culture and urban societies, they throw fresh light on the process by which France has been conceptualized and packaged as a cultural object.

Acknowledgements
Editorial Note

Introduction
Sarah Blowen, Marion Demossier, Jeanine Picard

PART I: MAKING SENSE OF THE PRESENT

Chapter 1. Reconstructing the past: in search of new ‘national identities’
Brian Jenkins

Chapter 2. Recalling the past and recreating it: ‘'museums actual and possible’'
Siân Reynolds

PART II: MEMORIES OF WAR

Chapter 3. War museums in France
Marie-Hélène Joly

Chapter 4. Public history and the ‘Historial’ project 1986–-1998
Jay Winter

Chapter 5. Lest we forget: memories, history and the Musée de la Résistance et de la Déportation de l’Isère
Sarah Blowen

PART III: MARITIME HERITAGE

Chapter 6. Construction of a Breton maritime heritage: processes and signification
Françoise Péron

Chapter 7. Heritage and history: rocking the boat
François Chappé

Chapter 8. Hidden reefs: a case study of the Port-Rhu Floating museum fiasco in Douarnenez
Jeanine Picard

PART IV: CULINARY HERITAGE

Chapter 9. Culinary heritage and produits de terroir in France: food for thought
Marion Demossier

Chapter 10. A market culture: produits de terroir or the selling of heritage
Laurence Bérard and Philippe Marchenay

Chapter 11. Produits de terroir, between local identity and heritage
François Portet

PART V: URBAN CULTURES AND NEW EXPRESSIONS

Chapter 12. Fast forward to the future? Cultural policies and the defnition of urban identities in the era of de-industrialisation
Susan Milner

Chapter 13. Public policy and urban cultures in France
François Ménard

Chapter 14. The mean(ing of the) streets: reading urban cultures in contemporary France
Chris Warne

Select Bibliography
Notes on Contributors
Index