It may be a long shot, but the iconic roofs of Paris, long a staple of movie scenes and poignant images of the city, are being proposed for status as a UNESCO World Heritage.
The French Ministry of Culture has sponsored the request to the UN committee, citing it as an intangible cultural heritage, embodying the craft of the roofers and zinc workers who build and maintain the city’s rooftops. The president of the roofers union told Le Parisien that “Being included in the list marks a just recognition of our profession. Our tools have been modernized and the risks inherent in our profession have declined. But our expertise remains traditional.”
The path to recognition, though, may be a long one. The committee takes its time considering applications, studying them and raising questions and concerns. And, importantly, UNESCO is giving most attention to requests from countries that don’t have many registered sites. While the only one in Paris is the banks of the Seine, France as a whole has many.
