It's a bit of a divine surprise. If theaters, concert halls and even cinemas still have to wait, many museums have already reopened, or are about to do so, and not just the "little ones" as had been announced. The means, and even the big ones, launch the fireworks in June. At the Musée d'Orsay, which will welcome the public from June 23, only by reservation, the ticket office will open this Monday, June 8. And we can even visit the exhibition of the great post-impressionist painter James Tissot, installed for nothing since mid-March and which we thought at first was definitively canceled.
As a symbol, she will finally live her life, the dozens of often foreign lenders having agreed to leave their works until September. A strong symbol also, these are children, schoolchildren, who will tread from these days and in the discretion of the Orsay halls, before its official reopening. Additional good news: visits by groups of 30 people will finally be allowed, the government decree having been relaxed last weekend.
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In Lyon, Les Confluences, one of the most popular museums in the regions, opened its doors Tuesday morning between Saône and Rhône. “There were 20 people waiting. It was as moving for them as it was for us, ”smiles its director, Hélène Lafont-Couturier.
"Above all, you have to make people want to come back"
The museum, which has extended its marvelous exhibition of ethnic headdresses from around the world, can only welcome 300 visitors at the same time compared to 3000 previously, but this is not the most important: "We estimate that we will lose 25% of our annual attendance in 2020. But right now, we must above all make people want to come back, and that they have the feeling of having the museum for them. Many find it difficult to leave containment. There was apprehension, even among our staff, before the reopening. The public will come very gradually. I saw pretty scenes today (Editor's note: Tuesday) . "
A hundred visitors to Lyon for this first day. The numbers have changed, and so have the codes and modes. The race for attendance records, which was often a shallot race, is probably over for a long time. It is no longer a question of having the longest queue, but of reassuring, existing, recreating a link with culture.
We felt Tuesday, in Marmottan, in Paris, as in Lyon or elsewhere, the emotion of a first time, and the beauty of reunion. With a mask, and underneath, smiles that you could guess in the narrowing of the eyes.
Already 8000 visitors to the Atelier des Lumières
The hit of recent years has reopened on May 26. And the Atelier des Lumières, in eastern Paris, with its immersive shows on painting, is not (too) familiar with the crisis. Already around 8000 visitors in a week, at the rate of 1100 per day. "The figure may seem substantial, but we impose a tonnage of 350 people at the same time maximum, against 700 previously, and this quota is not reached. As a result, the quality of the visit is incomparable, ”remarks Foulques d'Aboville, who heads the Paris Ile-de-France sector of Culturespaces, who manages the Atelier des Lumières.
The "new" and lower capacity almost immediately met its public for the exhibition "Monet, Renoir, Chagall ... Voyages en Méditerranée". A quieter stroll, a stroll ... The owner of the place wants to take it easy, even if the latest government decree, which is more flexible, recommends public quotas but does not precisely quantify visitors for museums.
At the Jacquemart-André museum, also managed by Culturespaces, the Turner exhibition has received, since May 26 also, only 60 visitors simultaneously at the most, because the rooms are small. “We thought that people would stay longer than before, since they are more peaceful. In fact, we find that in a one-hour window, they leave after forty-five minutes. Undoubtedly because the fluidity is much greater: we do not trample, we do not see visitors multiplying the photos in front of a work ”, remarks the manager. Positive results in these two places, even if “with an attendance which is not very high, the economic model remains to be found. "