Albert Londres, le grand reportage en héritage — Maison Albert Londres, Vichy

The house with two turrets at 2 rue Besse, in old Vichy, was built in the 1820s for a magistrate from Cusset and bought in two stages, in 1874 and 1876, by the grandparents of Albert Londres. He was born inside it on the evening of 1 November 1884. The family left in 1932; after that the building passed from owner to owner, each one poorer than the last, and it stood abandoned for some thirty years. The association that now runs it bought it in 2014 and began the rehabilitation works in 2017.

That is a fair subject for this year’s European Heritage Days, whose two themes are the heritage of photography and heritage in peril — reviving, resisting, reimagining. On 19 and 20 September the Maison Albert Londres opens for free or guided visits of its exhibition on the career of the reporter, de Lyon au Cap Gardafui: from the mining-company office in Lyon where he kept the books at seventeen to the war fronts of the Balkans, the young Soviet Union, India, and the Horn of Africa. Londres wrote in the first person, said what he had seen, and is remembered in France as the father of the grand reportage; the prize his daughter Florise created in his memory in 1933 still carries his name.

The weekend also marks something new: the house has just received the Illustres label, the distinction the French state gives to the homes of figures who marked the country’s history, and the association presents it over the two days. A media-education workshop, Découvrir le grand reportage, runs alongside the visits.

Practical details

• When: Saturday 19 and Sunday 20 September 2026, 10am to 12pm and 2pm to 6pm
• Where: Maison Albert Londres, 2 rue Besse, 03200 Vichy, France
• What: free or guided visit of the exhibition, presentation of the Illustres label, media-education workshop
• Booking: the city programme does not list booking for this venue; most other guided visits in Vichy go through the tourist office

The exhibition Albert Londres, le grand reportage en héritage continues at the house until 28 November 2026. The full Heritage Days programme is published by the Ville de Vichy. Cultural Heritage Online lists this event for readers in Vichy that weekend.