The Cité du Vin has reopened in Bordeaux. - Clément Carpentier / 20 Minutes

  • The Cité du Vin de Bordeaux has reopened after three months of closure.
  • The screens include teams of anti-bacterial films. The visit is free for children under the age of 17 until September.
  • With an audience made up of 60% foreign visitors, management does not expect a return to normal before the start of 2022.

Finally there is noise. Philippe Massol feels less lonely at once. This Friday morning, the Director General of the Cité du Vin de Bordeaux again exchanged a few words with visitors after more than three months of closure: “It feels good! He says. If the crowd of the big days is not yet back, this reopening to the public is already a first step. “It's nice to be able to come back, savor Marie, a visitor. Life has to resume in particular in these emblematic places of the city. The return to normal continues even if it is slow. "

Even if the Cité du Vin is vast, the sanitary protocol remains very strict and for example, the first floor dedicated to the workshops is for the moment still closed due to the impossibility of enforcing physical distance. But everything else has reopened: the permanent route on the second floor, the restaurant, the gazebo, the shops…

Mask, gel, anti-bacterial film, signage ...

The organization of the exhibition site has been redesigned with the wearing of a mandatory mask, hydroalcoholic gel available everywhere and very present signage on the ground. The goal being that the visitors meet as little as possible. With regard to the permanent route, the heart of the Cité du Vin, the many interactive screens have been fitted with anti-bacterial films.

🍷😷To respect the health protocol, many arrangements have been made by @laciteduvin de Bordeaux: wearing of the mandatory mask, hydroalcoholic gel available, signage on the ground, anti-microbial film on the screens ... pic.twitter.com / Lq3eb779Cw

- 20minutesbordeaux (@ 20minutesbord) June 19, 2020

A “reassuring” device for Thierry, who came from Libourne. "We are getting used to this life anyway because there are many places today where we have to wear the mask," he explains. And then here it is a visit, we are not at the restaurant or in a bar where we have to exchange, so the sanitary measures do not bother me at all ”. He even took advantage of the free visit for his son Mattéo. This will be the case until the end of at least August for children under the age of 17. A measure taken by management to try to attract families.

A return to normal not expected before 2022

In fact, despite "this immense pleasure of reopening, there is also a lot of frustration" because Philippe Massol knows that "he will not be welcoming many people in the coming months". He is aware that attendance will be down for a long time since the Cité du Vin, that is 60% of foreign visitors since its inauguration in 2016. By the end of the year, the management hopes to reach 150,000 visitors even if it will be almost three times less than in 2019.

Gironde: "Our way of saying thank you", winegrowers offer nearly 1,000 bottles for the nursing staff https://t.co/k218EWCvUN via @ 20minutesBord pic.twitter.com/jMOJ5w1TPX

- 20minutesbordeaux (@ 20minutesbord) June 8, 2020

The director hopes for a "good surprise", especially this summer with attendance divided only by two: "50,000 visitors, it would be a good summer given the context". He estimates the losses at 3-4 million euros in 2020 and warns that the return to normal is not for tomorrow but rather for "early 2022".

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  • Deconfinement
  • Covid 19
  • Bordeaux
  • City of wine
  • Wine
  • Viticulture
  • Aquitaine