The "Land of our Ancestors" project
3 Communities to build an innovative tourism offer focused on roots tourism
The "Land of our Ancestors" project is based on a unique cooperation between three geographically distant local authorities who are nevertheless convinced of the need to join forces to develop a coherent tourist offer and pool their resources. Alone we go fast, but with several we go further!
With a unique tangible and intangible heritage linked to the emigration to New France, the Interco Normandie Sud Eure, the Communauté de Communes des Hauts du Perche and the Community of Communes of the Marennes basinhave decided to jointly conduct a cooperation project focused on the development of an innovative form of tourism: roots tourism. The common challenge: to facilitate contact and travel for North Americans and Canadians in search of their French origins!
Land of our Ancestors" project begins in 2018 on three distinct territories that share a common history and a common desire to cooperate on this innovative tourism theme. Samuel de Champlain, the great architect of this colonisation, was born in Brouage and founded the city of Quebec in 1608. A few hundred Percherons left and settled in Quebec, keeping some of the most widespread family names (1.5 million descendants). The descendants of Paul Bertrand di Saint-Arnaud in the Eure region number more than 100,000 today, and François de Montmorency-Laval, the first bishop of Canada, was born in Montigny-sur-Avre.
An unprecedented cooperation in France to develop root tourism
Roots tourism is a project based on a form of tourism linked to a return to the roots of travellers to the land of their ancestors. It is a phenomenon that is already structured in the Anglo-Saxon countries that have provided many migrants (Ireland, Scotland, etc.), and is developing in African countries with the theme of slavery.
The idea is very prevalent in North America, among the descendants of those who colonised a territory and whose roots are extracontinental. It is therefore a question of a quest for identity and meaning for these tourists who return to the land of their ancestors, a tourism that is eminently sensorial and charged with emotion.
In France, very few territories have embraced this form of tourism, with the notable exception of the Montbéliard region, which offers routes relating to the migrants who left this territory in the 19th century.e Many of these people were born in Canada in the 19th century and have many descendants in Nova Scotia. However, many people choose to travel for reasons other than a change of scenery and culture; for them, it is a question of rediscovering a form of authenticity that brings into play the notions of identity, territory, mobility and otherness. In this sense, it is similar to religious tourism and memorial tourism, which offer a truly singular and personal journey by reappropriating history and that of one's family.
Tour routes
Marennes basin
Charente-Maritime
Tour routes
Sud-Eure
Normandy
Tour routes
Perche
Normandy
A common ambition, to discover the original lands of the founders of New France
Through the "Land of our Ancestors" project, the partner communities wish to :
-
Develop a unique tourism offer for North American customers
in order to conquer the emerging root tourism market -
Promote and raise awareness of the history of La Francophonie among the population
and local actors (elected representatives, inhabitants, tourism professionals, etc.) -
Cultivate the spirit of collaboration between territories around a unifying project
and pool resources to run an innovative local development project
In the framework of a first two-year action phase (2021-2022), the partner communities aim to build the foundations of the "Land of our Ancestors" offer through :
- The creation and animation of a network of local French and international actors around roots tourism.
- The creation of communication tools such as a website and promotional brochures for tourist circuits.
- The development of the offer through the animation and promotion of tour circuits in the territories and the implementation of a common event planned for autumn 2022.
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