The bells of soft power are once again over Paris

I was in Libya when I received an invitation to participate in the program of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of France on the topic of cultural heritage protection. The crown of a carefully tailored seven-day program for me and three other colleagues (from Argentina, Germany and the USA) was the official opening ceremony of Notre Dame Cathedral. I was tired from the journey, but an invitation like this could not be refused.

In those weeks, the French wanted to show us how, eventually, we should transfer these experiences to our societies - the way in which in this country they thoroughly and precisely approach the concept of spreading "soft power" primarily through culture, in the broadest sense of the word. : that's why the spectacular opening of the Summer Olympics, but also the wine at the Cité du Vin in Bordeaux, the largest interactive wine museum in the world. The call for this program came as a consequence of many years of work on the project "Castles of Serbia - protection of cultural heritage", as well as public appearances and texts on this topic, among other things in the weekly "Vreme".

The Salon de l'Horloge is the room in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of France where, on June 20, 1950, French Minister Robert Schuman announced the beginning of the implementation of the Schuman Plan, which is considered the beginning of the EU as we know it today. He proposed that the coal and steel production of France and West Germany be placed under a single authority, which would later be opened to other European countries. The ultimate goal was to calm relations, especially between France and West Germany, through gradual political integration, which would be achieved by creating common interests. "In order for a community of peoples to be created, it is first of all necessary to suppress the centuries-old enmity between France and Germany," he said. At the entrance are photos of all former foreign ministers, including Louis Barthou, who was killed with King Alexander in Marseilles in 1934.

In one of the adjacent rooms, we were served lunch hosted by Christophe Lemoine, spokesperson and director of media and communications at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. A delicious early lunch at 12.30, with a lot of red wine (Chateau le Crock, 2016) that the waiters generously poured into our glasses, turned into an open exchange of opinions about the French "soft power" strategy, especially in the atmosphere of the political crisis in the country (the prime minister is lost its majority in Parliament during our stay). Almost all of our interlocutors confirmed to us that the budget and the concept of French "soft power" do not change depending on personnel decisions and changes of government. And that is certainly a huge difference compared to us, for example.

photo: Robert Choban

That afternoon we went to Versailles, the palace of the French kings, from where Marie Antoinette was taken and later guillotined, where the Treaty of Versailles was signed in 1919, and Chautra was not allowed to film Alexandra of Yugoslavia. As I walked through the bedrooms and salons of Versailles, past the valuable works of art, I thought about how the French throughout their history over the past two and a half centuries - kingdoms, two empires and five republics, and even two German occupations - did not allow themselves to be "higher interests" overshadow the care of cultural heritage - churches, castles, paintings, sculptures, and even pieces of furniture and wardrobe.

photo: Robert Choban

Speaking of which, we also visited Le Mobilier national, an institution that deals with the repair and maintenance of historically valuable furniture owned by the state. It's amazing how carefully experts from all over the world work to restore valuable furniture. On some pieces for more than a year.

The National Institute for Heritage has a similar mission, but a broader scope. There, in the former match factory, the director of the Institute, Charles Personaz, met us and walked with us patiently from sector to sector - paintings, wood, photography, graphic art, metal - where we talked to young experts working on the conservation of certain objects. Among them, we met a girl born in France and originally from Serbia, who will probably grow up here to become an expert that our country desperately needs. Only if someone from Serbia called her.

On the last day, we had the privilege of peeking into the premises of another important place of French culture, the Institut de France, which includes five academies: the French Academy, the Academy of Sciences, the Academy of Humanities, the Academy of Fine Arts and the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences. The institute was founded in 1795 with the aim of bringing together the scientific, literary and artistic elite, working on improving science and art, developing independent opinion and advising public authorities, on a non-profit basis. We toured the hall where the academics meet - every day of the week a different academy has a session, as well as the library. I boasted that Vladimir Veličković, the famous Serbian painter and French academic, also sat here. It is interesting that the French academies began to admit women to their membership only after 1970 and that their membership today is less than 10 percent women. This year, the French Academy published the Dictionary of the French Language, 9th edition, and it was promoted this November by President Macron. The last, 8th edition was published in 1935, and the first - Le Dictionnaire de l'Académie françoise, pre-edition in Frankfurt am Main in 1687.

Apart from these sightseeing, we also learned some interesting facts about our host. That's how Emmanuel Etienne, assistant director in charge of heritage and architecture at the Ministry of Culture, told us how the state takes care of architectural heritage both in the European part of France and in its overseas departments. What distinguishes France from most countries in the world, when it comes to the preservation of architectural heritage, and is important for understanding the concept of Notre Dame Cathedral itself, is that the Catholic churches on its territory, as a result of revolutionary achievements - are owned by the state! Fewer own local self-governments, the larger and more important ones are the Fifth Republic.

Valerie Brise, deputy director for cultural, educational and academic diplomacy at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told us about the network of French institutes around the world - they exist in 110 countries and employ as many as 5.000 people. In China alone, where she previously worked, the French Institute has more than 400 employees working to expand the "soft power" of their country. The process of restitution, the return of works of art that ended up in one of the French museums during the colonial period, is very important to them. That program was launched by President Macron in 2017 and is being gradually and very carefully implemented through a large number of bilateral agreements that return works of art primarily to African and Asian countries that were once part of the French colonial empire. In the opposite direction, works of art are traveling, given to them for safekeeping by war-torn countries. Thus, a large number of very valuable Ukrainian icons recently arrived in France. France also finances a large number of archaeological missions around the world, currently as many as 160 of them.

Saturday, December 7, dawned, the day when Notre Dame Cathedral will be officially opened.

Immediately after the opening, I wrote about the ceremony and everything surrounding it on the Vremena portal, so it is unnecessary to repeat it. I'll just say that unlike the excellent seven-day heritage tour for the four of us journalists, the Elysée Palace, which was in charge of the reopening ceremony of Notre Dame, didn't really celebrate. Namely, from the part of the city south of the Seine where we were, it was not possible to cross it and go to the scene of the event. After an hour of walking from Pont Saint-Michel via Pont Neuf to Petit Pont Cardinal Lustiger (at least I learned their names), I don't know how or why, but a policewoman took pity and let me go to the island in the Seine where the famous cathedral is located. I settled in the section designated for journalists, which had "supervisors" in charge of warning you not to get up (when everyone else in the church is getting up), not to record (when everyone else in the church is recording) and the like. Of course, before the start of the official manifestation at 19 p.m., I went from that ban to the place where Macron, Trump, Prince William and other statesmen later sat.

A day later, in France, as well as in the press around the world, they commented more on who Trump called warmly and who not, who came from the statesman and who sent a replacement, than analyzed the works on stone, wood and glass in the cathedral itself. . Even quite convincing artificial intelligence-generated "recordings" of the fight between Donald Trump and Jill Biden in the front row of the cathedral were posted online. But that's probably the spirit of the times we live in, which differs significantly even from the world in which the cathedral burned in 2019.

On Sunday, news arrived that the Assad regime had been toppled in the former French colony of Syria and Notre Dame, its bells and bell ringers had gone where they belonged before – in tourist guides, movies and books. And they are probably more comfortable there than on the front pages and in stories on social networks.