Rotary Club of Arbois, Poligny, Salins-les-Bains
(District 1680)
Club Web Site: http://www.hetier.com/rotary
e-mail: arboispolignysalins@rotary-d1680.org
District website: http://www.rotary-d1680.org
Volume 46 August 2006
N° 2
Thursday 7 September: Visit of DG Claude Sarric accompanied by His wife, Éliane. Dinner with the Ladies at the Chalet Bel'air, Mouchard
Thursday 14 September: Statutory Supper at La Finette, Arbois: Visit of Mélodie, our sponsored scholar for 2006-2007
Thursday 21 September: Statutory Supper at La Finette, Arbois: Visit of Delphine, another of our sponsored scholars for 2006-2007
Thursday 28 September: Statutory Supper at La Finette, Arbois.
Few news this evening. After greeting everyone the president spelled out the programme for September reminding all present of the visit on Thursday 7 September of the District Governor and Mrs Claude Sarric. The traditional third Thursday aperitif would, exceptionally, be replaced by a dinner with the ladies at the Chalet Bel'air.
The committee meeting which followed this statutory meeting examined the grant applications of three students one of whom, Étienne Fleck, had had help already in during 2005-6.
Visitor: Mr Nicolas Bonnafous (RC St Denis Bourbon, D. 9220)
http://www.rotary-bourbon.org
Invitee: Monsieur Claude Romanet (speaker)
The president expressed his pleasure at the presence of our two guests this evening. They would have the floor after regular business had been dealt with.
Next Thursday, 17 August, at the personal invitation of the president, we would have our statutory meeting at the Parcey golf club. Claude suggested car-sharing for this excursion.
On 24 August, at a dinner with the ladies, we would have the pleasure of readmitting two former club members: Pierre-Yves Marchand and Gilles Gresset.
As to the visit of the delegation from RC Autun to Arbois on 24 September, they have organised their own programme. After visiting the cellars of Henri Maire they will dine chez Bruno and Monique at the Chalet Bel'air before moving on to Pontarlier in the afternoon.
The committee had, last week, looked at the student grant applications and had approved three: Étienne (continuing from last year), Mélodie (proposed by Serge) and Delphine (proposed by Jacques). The sum allotted last year would, this year, be divided three ways. [See the head of this bulletin for dates of the visits to the club of these students]
At the Interclubs dinner which we will be hosting on Thursday 16 November, Jacques Morel (RC Baume-les-Dames) will speak about the RYLA programme.
We have received a nice card from Maxime, Viviane, Charles and Myriam in Spain where their sunny weather was in considerable contrast to our own cold wet days.
Nicolas Bonnafous, originally from Arbois, but settled in Reunion for a number of years, wanted to say a few words about his club and its activities. Although admitted relatively recently to RC Saint-Denis Bourbon there, Nicolas was already Protocol. It is his club's policy to limit the number of members to 50, and there is already a considerable waiting list to join. Each new member has to pay an admission fee, so that club finances are very healthy, facilitating numerous projects which would be way beyond the means of our own club.
[Nicolas has subsequently sent us a number of photos taken this evening, including one of the formal exchange of club banners].
Next it was the turn of Claude Romanet to tell us something of the activities of communautés de communes (official organisations which link/co-ordinate the activities of a number of communal entities in an area for the greater good). M. Romanet is the mayor of the village of Pretin and president of the association based on Salins-les-Bains which groups 22 such entities and is operated by 56 delegates.
Getting the organisation on the road had been a complicated and delicate operation involving the definition of its role and the subsequent amendment of various statutes to assume many functions formerly falling to individual communities.
The participating communities were obliged to transfer their economic and land management responsibilities. They could also devolve their obligations in respect of environment and waste management and, optionally, social and sports matters.
The personnel were mostly fee paid. The organisations were funded by the state and by the business tax. In the case of Salins these amounted to €600-700,000. Projects could obtain funding from state, regional or even European resources. Examples could involve the rehabilitation of abandoned former industrial sites such as that of the old ceramics factory at Salins. Parts of that site had been given to Peugeot, but the rest were still available for e.g. artisans or small/medium scale enterprises, for example in the health sector where 400 jobs could be created.
Projects could also involve restoration work such as the improvement of 200 kms of pathways around the towns of Salins, Arbois and Poligny, and of rural heritage such as former 'village-pump' wash-houses, crosses, and wayside shrines. In our Department of Jura there is a total of 32 communautés de communes. Some of them are even looking at co-ordination at that higher level.
Thanks, too, to the brochures which M. Romanet distributed we could arrive at a much greater understanding of the function of what, for many of us, has always been a mysterious institution.
And a visit to
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communaut%C3%A9_de_communes_du_pays_de_Salins-les-Bains could also help to complete our education.
THURSDAY 17 AUGUST:
Statutory Supper at the Golf Club, Parcey, at the invitation of the President.
Claude received his guests on the terrace of the ' L'escarboucle' restaurant at the club-house of the Golf Club du Val d'Amour at Parcey where he offered a refreshing glass (or two) of punch whilst we admired the restful greenery and chatted. Dinner was taken indoors, though, as a slight chill prevailed outside.
No presidential news other than to recall the programme for the rest of the month, but Claude chose to regale us with an impromptu recital of poetry and selected readings from our classical literature.
We cannot resist reproducing here the conclusion of the fable of the milkmaid and the milk jug. Everyone knows the tale but not so many recall the ending:
Quel esprit ne bat la campagne ?
Qui ne fait châteaux en Espagne ?
Picrocholin, Pyrrhus, la Laitière, enfin tous,
Autant les sages que les fous ?
Chacun songe en veillant, il n'est rien de plus doux:
Une flatteuse erreur emporte alors nos âmes:
Tout le bien du monde est à nous,
Tous les honneurs, toutes les femmes.
Quand je suis seul, je fais au plus brave un défi ;
Je m'écarte, je vais détrôner le Sophie ;
On m'élit roi, mon peuple m'aime ;
Les diadèmes vont sur ma tête pleuvant:
Quelque accident fait-il que je rentre en moi-même ;
Je suis gros Jean comme devant.
[Very approximately:]
How the imagination stirs in the country!
Who is there who doesn't build castles in Spain?
Picrocholin, Pyrrhus, the milkmaid. everyone in fact,
Wise men as much as fools,
Everyone day-dreams, there's nothing sweeter:
An attractive waywardness takes hold of our souls:
We possess all the best in the world,
All the honours, all the women.
When I am alone I challenge the bravest,
I expand, I shall dethrone the Grand Sophie;
I am made king and my people adore me;
My forehead drips with diadems.
Some accident returns me to reality;
I am plain John again…….as before.
We also heard tirades from Le Cid and stanzas to the Marquis by Pierre Corneille, with the famous response written by Tristan Bernard and set to music by Brassens back in the 60s !
Thank you, Claude, for this very pleasant evening.
Until next Thursday at Port Lesney with the ladies!
Dinner with the Ladies at the Bistrot Pontarlier, Port Lesney
It was at the Bistrot at Port Lesney that we gathered with our ladies for a celebration: the return among us of Gilles and Anny Gresset. Past President and PHF, Gilles had been obliged by his professional, union and municipal duties to leave us for a while.
President Claude rejoiced at the return of his sponsor (in 1997) and asked André Lejeune, his original sponsor, to repeat the role. André did this with his usual thoroughness, retracing Gilles' career from headmaster of the Lycée (College) Considérant at Salins to the same at the Lycée Nicolas Ledoux at Besançon. He is presently Head at the Lycée Louis Pergaud in Besançon, 4th in France in order of numbers, having 3,000 pupils and 500 staff.
Our friend's Rotary career is equally illustrious. Admitted in 1995, he developed a bulletin of admirable quality which he edited from 1996 until 2000. It was Gilles, too, who initiated the trombinoscope (club directory) which has seen several subsequent editions.
As president in 2001-2 Gilles, conscious of the isolation felt by younger patients at the physical rehabilitation centre in Salins, organised a fund-raising theatre evening by his students to enable the provision of an Internet facility to enable them to communicate with their families, friends and others, both in France and worldwide, in similar circumstances to theirs.
Constrained to leave us for a while, Gilles was very happy to be back, as was André to be able to 'sponsor' him anew.
Gilles replied, regretting that he had had to absent himself. He had followed club fortunes via the bulletin, and had been deeply appreciative of Claude's invitation to participate in the presidential hand-over evening in July. Now with more free time, he hoped to resume his former assiduity.
Claude, welcoming Gilles back to the fold, decorated him anew with a traditional pin
The good news this evening was the admission of François Remy as Officier de l'Ordre des Palmes Académiques. Our heartiest congratulations to our friend who told us that the award was not so much for his university work as recognition of his role at the Académie des Sciences, notably with the Maison Pasteur at Arbois.
On Thursday next we will have the visit of the District Governor Claude Sarric accompanied by his wife Éliane. They will arrive around 16h00 and will stay with Marcel and Chantal Grégoire.
After a discussion with the president he will meet the committee at 16h30 at the Chalet Bel'air where, later, the traditional dinner with the ladies would take place
We will be hosting the Interclubs dinner on Thursday 16 November. Jacques Morel will speak on the subject of RYLA, and 8 clubs have already accepted our invitation to attend.
News of our invalid members: Pierre-Yves Marchant's state of health continues to give cause for concern, and we can only wish him an early recovery. According to Jean-Henri, Maurice Soudagne is still hospitalised at Lons-le-Saunier , but his condition is stable.
Following the meeting, the committee members tucked into fondue, snails and mountain fare as well, of course, as an agenda!
And we spared a thought for Pierre Millet who passed on just a year ago.
If you wish to subcribe to our monthly bulletin by email (in French only) and see all the pictures, please send a message to the webmaster:
jjoel dot bagage at wanadoo dot fr