Cité internationale de la langue française: a unique creation worldwide

As Catherine Colonna, Minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs, said as early as August during her speech at the Conference of Ambassadors, this creation, which complies with the “targets set by the Head of State” is “a unique opportunity to send a strong message about French language and its practice, which are factors of employment for the young generation, but also for creation and intellectual debates at international scale”.

Culture, Education, Research: Three Pillars of the Cité

The Cité internationale de la langue française (International City of French Language), which tour will open to all audiences” as early as the 1st of November, is presented as “will be a cultural and living place entirely dedicated to the French language” and which objective is to bridge “the past, present and future of the French language and the French-speaking world, around three pillars: culture & creation, education & training, research & innovation”.  

According to the dedicated website, the Cité ambition is to “reveal the French language as a source of creativity and exchange, of intellectual and aesthetic development, of pleasure and as a lever for social, economic and civic integration”.  And to reach this objective, the Cité pulls many levers with a diverse programme including temporary exhibitions and conferences, shows, events, educational activities, learning and training in the French language, and a lab for research and innovation about language challenges. These activities deploy around a tour of 1.000 m² of permanent exhibitions.

Reasons of this choice

One of the great castles of the Renaissance, the Royal Château of Villers-Cotterêts is a historic landmark that has been somewhat forgotten by the general public, but it has had a “tumultuous history”, as the Cité internationale website recounts date by date. The reason why the Château de Villers-Cotterêts was chosen as the site for a place devoted to the French language is that it was in this castle in the Aisne département that King François I signed a document in 1539, the famous “ordinance”[1], which made French the country’s official language for all administrative acts in the kingdom, replacing Latin.

As President Macron said in 2017, the aim is “to give back to this castle what the history carries with it. To reopen it, but to reopen it by also making it carry what is its vocation: the French language in all that it carries”. In 2017, the royal chateau, 75 km from Paris, was in an “advanced state of disrepair” and had been closed to the public for eight years. It took no less than five years of “collective work” to restore it to its original splendour. The castle renovation project was the largest in France, after Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris.

An original address, and emulators

In the words of the museum’s curator, as reported by France Culture radio, “the French language now has an address, and it’s in Villers-Cotterêts”. Today, the Cité is all set to host the traditional Francophonie summit in France in 2024, the first time this has happened in 30 years. Every year, the summit brings together the leaders of many of the world’s countries that “share the French language”.

The restoration of the Castle of Villers-Cotterêts and its transformation into a “living museum” of the French language - a world first - seems to have been such a success that the concept of an international city of one language is already being “emulated”. According to the curator, many countries around the world would be interested in replicating this creation elsewhere!

The new Cité internationale de la langue française in figures

The Minister of Culture, who led the project of creation of the Cité, provides figures highlighting the importance of the project:

• 23,000 m2 for the site Villers-Cotterêts;
• 1,600 m2 for permanent and temporary exhibitions;
• 1,200 m2 for the permanent visit course;
• 250 seats in the auditorium;
• 12 residency workshops for artists, researchers and entrepreneurs;
• 80 public and private partners, “from local to international, from the cultural, artistic, educational and training fields, social and associative organizations”;
• 600 companions from 220 companies for 65 occupations in the castle restaurant;
• Triple funding for the French government for a total of 185 million euros: 55 M€ from the ministry of culture, 30 M€ for the investment in the future programme, 100 M€ as part of the Relance Plan 2021-2022.

[1] The Ordinance of 1539, signed by François I, will be on public display in the new Cité internationale de la langue française for a few months, before returning to the National Archives.