Polish Tourism Organisation and Łódź Tourist Organisation set up a press trip to Łódź for Catherine de Chabaneix, a journalist of Marie Claire Idées.

The latest September-October issue of the French women’s magazine featured an extensive reportage presenting Łódź in a historical context and its exceptional contemporary urban local colour. The publication is a result of the time spent in Łódź in May by Catherine de Chabaneix, a journalist of the popular bimonthly, whose readership figures amount to almost 200,000 copies.

The title of the discussed reportage refers to a cinematic masterpiece, the Oscar-nominated Promised Land based on the novel by Władysław Reymont. Readers of “Łódź la promise” (“Promised Łódź”) become drawn into a world that enchants with the memories of a multicultural past and remnants of nineteenth-century industrial grandeur combined with a present-day colourful and modern character. The Łódź that de Chabaneix is discovering today is synonymous with former palaces of industrialists, the revitalized factory of Izrael Kalmanowicz Poznański, one of the greatest European plants of nineteenth-century textile industry now transformed into the Manufaktura shopping-entertainment-cultural centre (awarded the Golden Certificate of Polish Tourism Organisation), the state-of-the-art Centre for Science and Technology EC1, as well as Piotrkowska Street, whose numerous pubs and stylish venues host a never-ending roster of social events.

Catherine de Chabaneix asks readers to join her on a tour of particularly intriguing places, participate in numerous cultural events and drop by designer stores. She is struck by the kaleidoscopic cityscape, notices the contrast between red-brick buildings, the former splendour evoked by palaces of wealthy factory owners and the grey walls of non-revitalised townhouses. The journalist emphasizes the effort that went into the ongoing conservation works intended to restore the post-industrial Łódź architecture to its former grandiosity.

Covered by press reviews, the Marie Claire Idées article was discussed and recommended to viewers of the Télématin show broadcast by France 2. The podcast is available here.

According to press market analyses, each issue of the Marie Claire Idées bimonthly reaches close to 1.5 million readers. The ad price list of Groupe Marie Claire, the publisher of Marie Claire Idées. evaluates the costs of running material of comparable length to  Łódź la promise at about 160,000 EUR.