The codes of video games invite themselves into an immersive exhibition on Notre-Dame

• An immersive and interactive exhibition on the history of Notre-Dame de Paris opens this Thursday at the Collège des Bernardins, (5th arrondissement).

• Designed by the start-up Histovery, it allows you, thanks to a tablet, to relive the key dates of this emblematic building from the inside.

• The exhibition borrows a lot from the world of video games, particularly with regard to interactivity, but is distinguished by the concern for historical truth.

Everyone is playing video games.

Even Denis Brogniart, whom we imagine more readily making an advertisement for firelighters, praises the merits of a famous game console.

So why not Notre-Dame de Paris?

Let's not get carried away, this is not a video game on the cathedral but an immersive exhibition at the Collège des Bernardins, 5th arrondissement of Paris, entitled

which borrows a lot in its mechanics to video games.

And fortunately for the visitor, the content was much more elaborate than the title of the exhibition.

In all, "it took a year and a half for about thirty people to design this exhibition," says Edouard Lussan, co-founder of History.

It is this French start-up which is at work with the support of the Public Establishment in charge of the restoration of the cathedral (EP), the Collège des Bernardins and L'Oréal which finances all this.

"Unlike a classic exhibition, here the DNA is the video game, curiosity is constantly solicited and it's up to the visitor to interact", insists the one who designed the augmented visit or histopad, in his jargon.

Moreover, before embarking on the Histovery adventure, he was a

for ten years while the company's technical director spent nine years at Ubisoft.

And we feel that the video game irrigates the exhibition.

An atmosphere worthy of a “Point and click”

Concretely, the visitor is provided with a pad (a tablet), with which he must scan QR Code imitations arranged along the exhibition.

Then appears on the pad a 3D reconstruction of various eras of Notre-Dame, from its construction to the fire.

You then have to scan the space with your tablet to get an overview of the reconstruction as you would in a virtual reality game.

It is also possible to zoom in on it and interact with it to obtain information, in the manner of the

of the 1990s, such as

or the

.

"As the tablet does not have the computing power of a Playstation, and the battery life restricts us in the special effects and real-time movements, you find this atmosphere of

", explains Edouard Lussan.

Finally, the visitor is invited to look in each scene for a piece of hidden stained glass in order to reconstruct it, an essential treasure hunt in most video games.

"Researching the stained glass windows allows us to focus on this theme that we don't deal with in the other aspects of the visit," says the designer.

And we treated it in the form of a treasure hunt, because it always works with the general public.

More generally, it is the interactivity that guides the visit.

And “you find this interactivity in video games,” explains André de Sa Moreira, scenographer for the exhibition.

You are the hero, you move the objects, you make the choices.

A mechanic found in all open-world games.

But warns, Edouard Lussan, “we are not making a video game.

The latter obeys certain character control rules that we don't have there.

We are aimed at both young and old people and not specifically at gamers.

Another point that differentiates this visit from a game like Ubisoft

, which takes place in Paris during the French Revolution, is that the histopad "must absolutely have perfect historical veracity" , says its designer.

Hence the submission for validation of each sequence to a scientific committee.

This difference is explained by objectives that are not the same: entertainment for

and the transmission of knowledge for Histovery.

"Ubisoft makes its cathedral for specific gameplay," says Edouard Lussan.

He is forced to cheat with the story to first serve his purpose which is to have a good game play.

Our goal is to make a virtual visit to the past for as many people as possible.

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*Notre-Dame de Paris, the expanded exhibition,

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The exhibition is exported

Faced with the global impact of the Notre-Dame fire, - "There is hardly a country in the world where there is not a donor", indicates Jérémie Patrier-Leitus, director of communication for the EP-, the designers of the exhibition wish to make it travel.

Thus, even before the end of the exhibition at the Collège des Bernardins, its twin will open on April 15 at the National Building Museum in Washington and on August 6 in Dresden.

Ten other cities should be visited by the exhibition, but negotiations are still underway between Histovery, the sponsor L'Oréal and local actors.

Bruno de Sa Moreira, co-founder of the start-up, is “absolutely convinced that this proposal will meet its international success”.

He points out that the demo visible last October at the Dubai International Expo attracted 150.

000 visitors in 30 days.

"It was one of the hits of the exhibition," he says.

"Everyone knows about the 2019 fire, it was shocking and really a big event," said Hannah Fischer, who works for the BBC and traveled from London.

And it's really interesting to delve into the history of the cathedral.

I think it can work abroad.

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• Paris

• Notre Dame of Paris

• Notre-Dame de Paris fire

• Video games

• Exposure

• Ile-de-France

• Culture