Innovation

Since 2010, the CMN has carried out more than thirty innovative projects, prioritising the improvement and enrichment of the visitor experience: augmented reality tours with Histovery at the Conciergerie, Skyboy at the Georges Clemenceau House, Timescope at the Arc de Triomphe, virtual queuing with Je File at Notre-Dame, improved data management with Affluences, visitor feedback with Guestviews, and the Awabot remote tour robot at the Villa Kérylos, amongst others… In 2018, the creation of the heritage incubator helped to consolidate these initiatives by offering 3 to 8 project leaders per year a comprehensive support programme focused on experimentation. In total, 33 start-ups have been incubated since 2018, with a survival rate of 95 per cent. Partnerships have been established to extend the incubator’s scope to industrial heritage (with the SNCF in 2020) and internationally (with the Institut Français in 2021). The sixth season focused on the ecological and social transition, building on the previous edition. 

As early as 2010, the CMN led the way by setting up an augmented reality experience at Cluny Abbey to recreate the destroyed parts of the church. The CMN continues to roll out augmented reality at its monuments, where it adds value to the visitor experience. Roll-outs are planned for 2023 in collaboration with ALTO and AGP at Mont Saint-Michel and the Château de Vincennes. At the same time, the CMN is venturing into the field of virtual reality, notably through co-productions with Flyview in 2022 and Lucid Realities in 2023.

Finally, the CMN is also developing immersive sound projects with significant investment in R&D. Since 2021, an immersive sound and scent experience has been on offer at the Hôtel de la Marine. Produced in partnership with Radio France and RSF, it has been a huge hit with visitors, achieving a 95 per cent satisfaction rate.

In 2021, the CMN carried out a large-scale trial of remote guided tours of its monuments (the white paper can be downloaded here).  To take these new forms of outreach further, the CMN successfully applied for the ‘Digitisation of Heritage and Architecture’ call for projects under the Programme d’investissements d’avenir (PIA4), managed by the Caisse des dépôts as part of France Relance. The programme, carried out in partnership with MyTourLive, Mira and Mazedia, will run for three years. It aims, on the one hand, to streamline and optimise the creation and use of digital representations of monuments and, on the other, to test new ways of promoting these to the general public and professionals. Beyond the issue of autonomy for the CMN, one of the key objectives is to measure and better manage the environmental footprint of new experiences in virtual environments.

In conjunction with CMN Digital, the CMN wishes to explore the potential offered by Web3 and experiment with the creation of NFTs as a means of promoting monuments and as a medium for new hybrid artistic and cultural experiences, both off-site and in situ.

Since 2022, the CMN has been running an experiment on ‘Third Places’. 

The aim is to make unoccupied or under-utilised spaces within its monuments available to local stakeholders and residents. Through this project, the CMN aims to make cultural venues more accessible to local communities. The pilot scheme seeks to assess the potential and appeal of this initiative amongst residents, entrepreneurs, organisations and local authorities, as well as its compatibility with the day-to-day running of the monuments.