The permanent exhibition at the Lyon Cite Internationale de la Gastronomie, the expography of an intangible heritage

The creation of four Cites de la gastronomie , cultural centres devoted to gastronomy set up at Dijon, Tours, Paris-Rungis and Lyon, has seen the emergence of highly varied projects in each of these locations. But beyond the specificities of how each centre has been organised in statutory and political terms, and beyond the question of what contents it has and what financial resources it enjoys, the common denominator is the ambition to promote a territory, a place or a neighbourhood by using gastronomy as a vector with tourist, cultural and economic components. So, it might be interesting to see how each city has approached this new heritage object and how it has apprehended it. Taking the example of the conception of the permanent exhibition of the Lyon Cite, installed in the historic Hotel-Dieu, we shall look at the way the project was written and developed, the ideas generated by the ways this novel theme could be addressed and the difficulties encountered. Any exhibition on the theme of gastronomy inevitably raises the question Will there be something to eat? What answers to this question? In 2010 the Gastronomic Meal of the French was inscribed on UNESCO s representative list of intangible cultural heritage, but how can this listing which celebrates savoir-faire, togetherness and taste be interpreted in a museum exhibition? Tasting real food products? Looking at facsimiles moulded in resin? Smelling fragrances? How can food be exhibited in a museum without running into practical and logistical obstacles and without generating misunderstanding, particularly today when health and nutrition have never been so closely associated and when people are more and more careful about what and how they eat. The creation of the Cites de la gastronomie offers an opportunity to delineate the elements of a heritage and to reflect on the best ways of sharing and transmitting this heritage, renewing the ways stories can be told in museums and the way objects can be chosen to feature in an exhibition.