VMF stands for "Vieilles Maisons Francaises", which is the French organisation in charge of the preservation of the architectural cultural heritage in France. It is equivalent to the well known "British Heritage", which plays the same role in England. VMF head quarter is in Paris, yet it involves 20,000 members and it has chapters of different departments in France. The organisation is a non governmental one, yet has the power of enforcing the construction and urban preservation laws. It is the real guardian of the architectural patrimony. VMF publishes a bimonthly magazine, which highlights the different architectural features of the different regions. On the 15th anniversary of its creation, VMF held a big conference in collaboration with the UNESCO, during which the UNSECO proposed that VMF should extend its activities to include the French influenced heritage outside France. During the meeting that followed, former ambassador to Egypt and member of the organisation, Patrick Leclercq, proposed Egypt as one of the countries rich with a substantial French influenced architectural heritage from the 19th and 20th centuries and gave the examples of downtown Cairo, Heliopolis, Alexandria and the Suez Canal area. This came as a surprise to his fellow members because to them Egypt was mostly known only for the Pharaonic and Islamic heritage. The board was enthusiast and thus got in touch with the French ambassador in Egypt, Jean Felix-Paganon, to stretch the idea as a part of what is now called "VMF-Monde", who kindly contacted me as the director of the Centre for Documentation of Cultural and Natural Heritage "CULTNAT" since one of our main targets is to document different aspects of the Egyptian heritage including the architectural heritage. Consequently and with great pleasure, we were put in contact with the VMF in Paris, exchanged visits and ideas and finally started an Egyptian chapter for the organisation. This initiative goes in parallel with four similar chapters in other countries: Lebanon, India, Senegal and Vietnam. Last week we were honoured by the first visit of the president of VMF France, Philippe Toussaint, who toured different architectural landmarks including downtown Cairo, Heliopolis, Alexandria and Canal cities as well as the different archeological sites such as Giza, Saqqara and Historic Cairo. Simultaneously, he had meetings with the newly formed VMF-Egypt chapter as well as a gathering at the French ambassador's residence. VMF-Egypt decided that its activity should be in two directions; documenting the presence of the French architecture in Egypt as well as the presence of the Egyptian culture (or what is known as Egyptomania) in the French territories. So my next two articles will be on the two influences; Egypt in Paris and Paris in Egypt. [email protected] Saleh is the Director of Egypt's Centre for Documentation of Culture and Natural Heritage.
