A committee of eight Parisian museums have teamed up to organize a free public game in the streets surrounding the Grand Palais for this year’s European Heritage Days, which will run from September 9-17. The game, “The Incredible Paris of Alfred Picard”, will take players back to 1900, when the city of Paris was preparing for the World’s Fair.
Developed with Quaestyo, a new app that lets users take part in real-world treasure hunts or escape games, the game will ask players to help Alfred Picard, the General Commissioner and Chief Curator of the 20th Century Fair, get off the ground.
The ambitious Universal Exhibition of 1900 became a milestone in the history of France. Like previous editions, it showcased some of the latest technological innovations, including escalators, diesel engines and electric cars. It was also installed in the buildings of the Grand Palais and the Petit Palais, specially built to house these extraordinary exhibitions. Although the international importance of the fair is obvious to us today, it was not easy for Picard to convince those responsible that it was worth the effort.
Crowds of people await the arrival of French President Emile Loubet to open the Universal Exhibition in Paris, France on April 14, 1900. Photo: Keystone View Company/Graphic House/Archive Photos/Getty Images.
That’s where today’s culture buffs come in. Players of the new game will only have two hours to help Picard convince the French Minister of Commerce to support his plan, collecting evidence from major local institutions like the Petit Palais, the Fluctuart art gallery, the Théâtre du Rond-Point and the Invalides army museum. The game has both a family version suitable for children and an adult version.
A promotional video sees a computer-generated video of Picard telling players that “the future of Paris hangs in the balance”,
The European Heritage Days are an annual program of cultural events overseen by the Council of Europe and the European Commission. This year will mark 40 years since the creation of the initiative in France in 1984, and the theme is rightly “living heritage”.
The game is organized by the Réunion des musées nationaux – Grand Palais, with the stated aim of revitalizing the cultural district between the Champs-Elysées, the Seine and the Invalides by further promoting collaboration between cultural institutions. Also known as Rmn-GP, the public establishment was born from the merger of the National Museums of Paris with the Grand Palais in 2011.
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