French museums will be free for EU citizens under 26 years old

Paris - Citizens of the European Union, including the Czech Republic, under the age of 26 will have the opportunity starting Saturday, April 4, to visit a total of fifty museums and about a hundred other national monuments in France completely free of charge. This will make places such as the Louvre Museum, the royal palace of Versailles, and the abbey on the island of Mont-Saint-Michel accessible to many people.
    French Minister of Culture Christine Albanel expressed her enthusiasm today on this occasion, stating that this opens up enormous opportunities for youth under 26, who are in a phase of life filled with curiosity and free time, but are also marked by a lack of financial resources.
    The measure, which was announced in January originally only for the benefit of young French citizens, theoretically affects around 6.5 million French citizens as well as roughly another 50 million young people in the rest of the European Union. According to data from the French Ministry of Culture, tourists of all nationalities aged 18 to 25 represent 11 percent of visitors to monuments, which amounts to 3.6 million people.
    Free entry to museums such as the Louvre, Orsay, and Cluny applies only to permanent exhibitions. Temporary exhibitions will still charge admission fees. Those under 26 will also be able to access the Arc de Triomphe in Paris or the towers of Notre-Dame Cathedral and the Sacré-Cœur Basilica, as well as the medieval city of Carcassonne without payment.
    The French state, which has promised to compensate the loss in revenue for the monuments, estimates that this measure will cost it 30 million euros (814 million CZK) this year.