On September 15, at 5 p.m., the conference room of Martinique’s Cultural Affairs Department is already packed. Journalists, cultural leaders, organizations, artists, and heritage professionals have gathered to find out what the 43rd edition has in store. With just four days to go before the 2026 European Heritage Days , scheduled for September 19 and 20, this press conference already feels like a journey across Martinique—from its Creole huts to its lighthouses, from Saint-Pierre to the monuments we sometimes pass by without really noticing them. European Heritage Days 2026: A Lively Conference Johan-Hilel Hamel, Martinique’s director of cultural affairs, opened the meeting without putting on airs. He even warned that the evening would not be a long monologue. The conversation quickly began to flow. A representative from Les Trois-Îlets speaks, followed by Xavier Nicolas from the Directorate of the Sea, Philippe Villard from the Heritage Foundation, Florence Le Gal from