A French cultural and educational organisation is launching an immersive augmented reality experience of Notre-Dame de Paris on Sunday, coinciding with the cathedral's reopening after its devastating fire in 2019. Lydie Blandeau, co-founder and CEO of Visionairs, said the exhibition aims to showcase the cathedral's 850-year history through innovative technology and artefacts, fostering cultural exchange between France and Hong Kong. She also said the AR exhibition will enable people of all ages to explore the iconic landmark without the need for travel. "This experience, it's a mix of history and what has happened in the 21st century when the cathedral was on fire, so they will enjoy the new constructions, but all of these new constructions are based on real strong work from people, we can say like craftsmanship people, who rebuilt the cathedral to what it was, including by using the stone they used 800 years," she said. "It's a very interesting combination of 360 degrees of augmented reality, so you can turn around and you can see from the bottom to the top different aspects and visuals of the cathedral." Visitors will receive a portable touch-screen tablet that guides them on an interactive tour of grand historical events, including the wedding of King Henry IV, Napoleon Bonaparte's coronation, and the construction of Viollet-le-Duc's spire in the 19th century. This exhibition has travelled the globe, from Paris to Dubai and Montreal to Shanghai, attracting over 750,000 visitors across 19 locations. Blandeau said she hopes to create a similar exhibition showcasing Hong Kong's landmarks for a global audience in the future. "We hope we can work with different Hong Kong museums and especially culture here because Hong Kong, it's really a place in Asia where everything comes true regarding arts and culture. I think Hong Kong people, they appreciate art and history," she said. "We hope we can create more content from here to exhibit also in our next venue we want to do in Paris and Arab countries where we have different offers to enlarge different locations like this."
