Bistros In Paris Has Requested For UNESCO World Heritage Status
Bistros In Paris Has Requested For UNESCO World Heritage Status: Thirty years ago bistros and street cafes made up half the restaurants in Paris, according to Fontaine, but the figure has fallen to just 14 percent, with fast-food joints, coffee chains and snack bars steadily squeezing them out.
For Fontaine, UNESCO recognition would restore pride to bistro owners and put tradition back on the map.
Typical Parisian bistros and cafes could join the UNESCO “intangible cultural heritage” list in 2020 after an association of owners, actors and other individuals launched a campaign to grant these establishments “protected” status.
For many tourists and French citizens, these Paris venues have always been an emblematic part of the city.
UNESCO recognition would help boost and perpetuate the bistro tradition by adding prestige to the establishments and identifying them clearly for tourists in guide books and on front windows.
A final version of the dossier will be submitted to the French ministry of culture in December where it will be examined for potential submission to UNESCO.
An association of Parisian cafe owners has launched a campaign for the city’s bistros and terrace cafes to be placed on UNESCO’s “intangible cultural heritage” list.
The group points to the role the capital’s street cafes played following the terror attacks in November 2015. In a statement, it said that following the atrocities, “Parisians crowded onto the terraces… to show that they regarded them as places of cultural cross-fertilisation, of freedom and of the art of living.”
It added that the culture of Paris’ world-famous cafés and bistros was increasingly “under threat”, from soaring rents and powerful multi-nationals in the food and drinks industry.
The City of Paris has added its weight to the campaign, saying that it was “fully supportive” of the initiative.
A dossier will be handed to the Ministry of Culture, which is responsible for submitting such applications to UNESCO, in September.
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