For one weekend every year the citizens of forty-nine countries throughout Europe are given special access to places of culture. In Paris the doors of many historic buildings normally closed to the public are thrown open with a flourish. It all began in France in 1983 when the Ministry of Culture sponsored La Journée Portes Ouvertes. The Day of Open Doors. It caught on. It is now part of European Heritage Days - in France called the Journées du Patrimoine.
The Ministry of Culture and Communication was created under the Fifth Republic with the task of “…making Man’s and above all France’s greatest works accessible to as many French people as possible to ensure as wide as possible an audience for our cultural heritage and to encourage the creation of works of art and of intellect that will enrich it..” Appropriately their home offices were where I began my privileged peek at the Palais Royal.
These open door days are always extremely popular, so queues were long. But that just gave me a chance to speak French (OK, attempt some words that might resemble French) – to those lined up with me.