2025 Stéphane Bern Mission: play the lottery and make the castle’s destiny !

Are you familiar with the Stéphane Bern Mission ? It is official: since September 1st, the Château de Poudenas has been selected to participate in this restoration campaign. We will explain everything in this article!

What is this mission, entrusted to Stéphane Bern?

In France, the government is tasked with maintaining, restoring, enhancing, and transmitting heritage in various forms, across the entire territory.

In this context, in 2017, the President of the Republic entrusted Stéphane Bern with the mission to identify endangered heritage assets and to find new ways to finance their preservation, with the support of the Ministry of Culture and the Heritage Foundation.

A participatory digital platform has been set up, allowing the French to report the small heritage that seems to them to be in danger.

The advantages :

• To raise awareness among the French of the need to protect heritage.

• To put under light rural heritage (castles, mills, washhouses, churches, farms, bread ovens, forges…)

• To accelerate the census process: over 7000 sites have been reported, and 1000 projects have been selected since 2018!

• To highlight little-known touristic sites and restore attractiveness to certain territories.

Link to the site of the Stéphane Bern Mission  : https://www.missionbern.fr/

In concrete terms, how does the Stéphane Bern Mission preserve heritage?

The Stéphane Bern Mission allows for the full or partial funding of the restoration of heritage assets: currently, 730 sites are under restoration or have been restored thanks to the Mission! The selected assets are divided into two categories:

• The 18 emblematic sites, representing each French region and fully funded.

• The 102 regional sites (at the scale of the "département"), partially funded and chosen from a list of candidate sites by a selection committee. All project holders had until February 28, 2025 to submit their project. After being reviewed by the committee, the 102 sites were announced on September 1, 2025. The Château de Poudenas was the site chosen for Lot-et-Garonne and represents it on a national scale!

How does the French Lottery (FDJ) intervene in the Stéphane Bern Mission?

The funding of the project, in collaboration with FDJ, led to the creation of a special scratch card game 'Mission Patrimoine' (Heritage mission) as well as an exclusive lottery draw, the Loto du Patrimoine (Heritage Lottery).

• The Mission Patrimoine scratch tickets went on sale starting September 1, 2025, priced at 15 euros.

• The Lottery and Super Lottery draws dedicated to financing the Mission will take place on September 17, 19, 20, and 22, 2025.

Every year since 2018, these games have helped raise tens of millions of euros to support the Stéphane Bern Mission (26 million euros in 2024, and a total of over 325 million euros since its launch).

The 18 emblematic sites have all their work covered but the other departmental sites will have their aid calculated at the end of 2025, when the amount mobilized for the Mission Patrimoine games will be known.

Link to the FDJ website : Mission Patrimoine 2025 : Misez 15€ et Gagnez jusqu'à 1,5M€ | jeu à gratter illiko® FDJ

Why does the Château de Poudenas need help?

The Château de Poudenas was selected by the Stéphane Bern Mission due to the concerning condition of its west facade: built from locally quarried limestone, it presents multiple issues, noted by heritage architect Guillaume Clément:

• Flaking

• Alveolization

• Splitting (due to the hinges of the shutters in particular)

• Missing joints

• Splintered window lintels

• Localized vertical cracks

A set of alterations that weaken the building and make it more vulnerable to the effects of time.

The restoration work, made possible by the selection of the Stéphane Bern Mission, concerns:

• The overall restoration of the west wall

• The replacement of numerous broken tiles

• The repainting of the woodwork

• The replacement of all railings

The restoration will start in October 2025 and is expected to end in October 2028.

Link to the Heritage Foundation page of the Château de Poudenas : Château de Poudenas | Fondation du patrimoine

How to help the castle ?

There are several ways to support the castle!

• Donating on the digital platform of the Stéphane Bern Mission

• Participating in the Mission Patrimoine games, available until September 22

• Coming and discovering the Castle hence raising your awareness of its history during guided tours, particularly during the European Heritage Days 2025 (Journées Européennes du Patrimoine 2025) on September 20 and 21, or the rest of the year by calling us at +33 6 80 01 27 42.

The Château de Poudenas is proud to have been chosen by the Stéphane Bern Mission as the heritage site representing Lot-et-Garonne, and looks forward to presenting its restoration project during an evening event that will take place on September 19, 2025.