International audienceThis article is based on research on heritage as portrayed in French television programmes. The author examines the presence and use of nostalgia in a selection of programmes broadcast from the 1960s to the late 1990s. During this period, France underwent many changes owing to intense modernisation efforts and territorial development. In this context, the heritage cause emerged for numerous reasons, one being because people feared modernisation would cause the loss of a large part of French material and cultural heritage such as historical sites and monuments as well as landscapes. The expression of nostalgia in television programmes focuses on a vision of a past which was supposedly better, and refers to tradition as ...