the account is good in Biron

“Repetition makes reputation,” prophesied the great advertising executive Marcel Bleustein-Blanchet. Add to that a great product, and you are sure to have commercial success. La Semitour decided to apply the recipe to the Château de Biron, in Dordogne; Obviously, she is a winner. “Already + 18% attendance,” says the director of the structure, André Barbé. As of October 2, we already have 10,000 more visitors than in all of 2023.” And the year is far from over. In September, all of France saw Biron, Biron, and more Biron.

On Thursdays and then Fridays, regular viewers of the program “Les Taîtres”, broadcast on M6, watched personalities having fun within the walls of the castle; History enthusiasts will have preferred to watch the adaptation of “Fortune de France”, every Monday on France 2, the enclosure serving as a setting to represent Sarlat at the time of the Wars of Religion; and even those who confine themselves to television news have not been able to cut it, the inauguration of facsimiles produced in partnership with the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (MET) making the front page of many editions.

80,000 visitors

“It’s the chameleon castle,” relishes the site manager, Sébastien Cailler. He adds: “Thanks to this coverage, we are able to reach all audiences. Biron has once again become the lighthouse of the Pays des Bastides. » It was targeting 80,000 visitors in 2027. The objective has already been achieved. “We will feel the consequences of the media coverage of this end of summer in a few months, and there will still be some changes,” hopes the thirty-year-old.

“It’s the chameleon castle […]. Thanks to this coverage, we are able to reach all audiences”

“It’s like camping,” teases André Barbé. When the tourist returns, he likes to know where his money went. Every year, we must invest to have products that meet customer expectations. That's my philosophy. » Visitors rediscovered in the chapel, in 2023, “The Pietà” and in 2024, “The Entombment”. These two sets of statues, properties of the MET, were able to be reproduced thanks to the know-how of the Atelier des facsimilés du Périgord (AFSP) in Montignac-Lascaux, a subsidiary of Semitour. The originals remained in American collections.

Tapestries

But the story is not over between the museum on the edge of Central Park and the castle on the edge of Lot-et-Garonne. “They want to reproduce the location of “The Entombment,” smiles André Barbé. Sébastien Cailler adds: “People will be able to scan a QR Code and will see the statues in their original location, the Biron chapel. For our part, we are considering the possibility of recoloring the statues digitally. »

The exchanges between “the little French” and the big American museum could now take on a more monastic color. Another New York museum, The Cloisters, depends on the MET. So, when American officials came to inaugurate the Biron facsimiles in September, Périgord peasant (and commercial) common sense took over. “We went to show them around Cadouin Abbey. For them, it was magical, I saw it in their eyes,” assures André Barbé.

Sébastien Cailler plans: “The Cloisters has a series of seven tapestries, ''The Hunt for the Unicorn''. They belonged to the La Rochefoucauld family, established in the South-West, in Charente. These are large pieces. We are working on the possibility of making facsimiles, as for the statues in the chapel. » After having succeeded in bringing the castle to life, its young manager wanted to furnish it. “We work with the Mobilier national and are in the process of forging links with the Aubusson factory. It’s worth saying so,” jokes Sébastien Cailler.