Journées du Patrimoine, Pondicherry Heritage Summit: Pondicherry’s Architectural Heritage and its Cultural Preservation, a collaboration between Govt of Puducherry and Region Centre Val de Loire, France. Mr. Laurent Jalicous, Director, Alliance Française de Pondichéry, Mr. Jayanta Kumar Ray, IAS, Secretary Tourism, Govt of Puducherry, Mr. Étienne Rolland-Piègue, Consul General of France in Pondichéry and Chennai, Mr. Coumar Ananda, Founder, Pondichéry City & MuseumLab Foundation, Ms Kamala Marius, Associate Professor at Bordeaux Montaigne, Mr. Ashok Panda, Consultant, INTACH’s Puducherry Chapter shared their views during the inaugural session.

On this occasion, Dr Kishor Kumar –Tripathy, Member Secretary, AuroBharati, Sri Aurobindo Society, Puducherry highlighted about the diversity of cultural expressions and the rich heritage of Puducherry in terms of Intangible Cultural heritage, Cross-cultural connections and more about the conservation, preservation and sustainable measures for the rich heritage of Puducherry. Emphasized on the urgent need to preserve the tangible and intangible heritage, which was flourished through both Tangible and Intangible culture. There are tremendous possibilities to develop spiritual Tourism in India. Eminent scholars from France Florence VASSAL, Ms. Sophie MARTINEZ ALMANSA, Fiona GUERRA, Michael MARIET, Florian BRZENCZEK, Benoit LONQUEU and Sarah ARBEZ

Coumar ANANDA shared their creative expressions on the topic.

The three-day program focussed exhibitions, round table discussions and field visits focussing on balancing sustainable development, innovation, and social inclusivity, while preserving Puducherry’s unique identity, revitalising Pondicherry in terms of architectural heritage and tourism with stakeholders from the Govt and other civil society groups, Pondicherry’s Heritage, Cultural Preservation and Sustainable Tourism, Experiential Tourism, Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) are both technologies that combine a virtual world with the real world,

Expérience France Region Val de Loire Heritage monuments in Pondichéry with a Virtual tour and visit of the Region and Workshop on revitalising Pondicherry in terms of architectural heritage

and tourism. The program was jointly organized by Consulate General of France in Pondicherry, Government of Puducherry, Region Centre Val De Loire, French Institute of Pondicherry, INTACH, Pondicherry City and Museum Lab Foundation, Indiaspora, Alliance Francaise and The Spot, from 20-21 Sep, 2024.