Sarkozy’s museum plan wins support PRESIDENT Sarkozy has suggested that a new museum could give the Normandy economy a vital boost. Speaking to a forum in Avignon, he said culture could help pull France out of the current crisis. The president wants to decentralise culture as much as possible, and suggested the construction of a Musée d’Orsay in Normandy. The region is known for its links to Impressionist painters and in Le Havre, “Muma” (The Musée d’Art Moderne André Malraux) boasts the second largest collection of Impressionist works in the country after the Musée d’Orsay. Museum spokesperson Marie Agnès Godin says French Prime Minister François Fillon has also mentioned this project, but she says the museum has not heard anything from the government on the subject and has no connections with the Musée d’Orsay. “I like to believe in dreams,” she said. “Perhaps it will be possible one day, but for now, it is not on the agenda.” A similar scheme in Metz, the Centre Pompidou-Metz, was inaugurated in May 2011 and has resulted in a general upturn in Metz’s economic fortunes. In Giverny the Musée des Impressionnismes is working very closely with the Musée d’Orsay. The museum will open for summer 2012 on April 1.
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January 2012
Normandy’s white tigers get ready to go public by SAMANTHA DAVID IT’S only a month until animal lovers can visit the white tiger cubs at Cerza Zoological Park, just outside Lisieux. The cubs, one male and one female, were born in October and are due to be named this month. Suggestions are being made by the people who have “adopted” the white tigers, but the final choice will be made by their keepers.
Photo: © Gerard Lacz
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The most common family name in Normandy is Lefebvre or Lefevre, which means “blacksmith”. The second most common name in the region is Marie, which means Mary. According to the figures from INSEE* for children born between 1891 and 1990, the third most common name is Duval, meaning “from the valley” and bringing up the rear in fourth place is Martin. The top 10 most popular family names also includes Leroy (the king), Jeanne, Langlois which means English and Petit... which means little. So far there are no British surnames in the lists. *INSEE - The French National Institute for Statistics and Economic Studies.
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It isn’t a question of money, it’s a question of conservation and breeding.
Camille de Roux-Zallier
Cerza Zoological Park “They will definitely have names that reflect their Asian heritage,” says Camille de Roux-Zallier, from the park. “We won’t be calling them after cartoon characters.” White Bengal tigers are the result of a genetic mutation which, although it makes them beautiful, also means they cannot survive in the wild, as they would be easily spotted by their prey. A fully-grown male can weigh up to 200kg, and a female up to 150kg. An adult
Photo: © oscab - Fotolia.com
Charge up your car at council car parks
RECHARGING stations for electric cars are to be installed in Le Havre later this year, at a cost of about €240,000. All 13 council-owned car parks are to be equipped with two parking bays for electric cars. For €2, drivers will be able to plug their cars into a slow charger which will completely top them up, giving them enough power for 150kms. There will also be a fast charger, which in just one hour, will provide enough power for a car to be driven up to 15kms. There will also be sockets for electric motorbikes. The recharging stations have been in the pipeline since 2010. Daniel Ozanne, of Le Havre town council, said: “We waited for other places to install recharging stations first, because we didn’t want to get it wrong.” The council has also acquired 10 electric vehicles for use by its employees. In Rouen, the council already has five electric vehicles in its fleet, using two recharging stations, and it has already voted to make parking free for electric vehicles. In Yvelines, Renault plans to start producing its electric model Zoe later this year. The town is also planning to install about 250 recharging stations.
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White tiger mother Lisa plays with her cubs, which were born in Cerza zoo in October eats about 25kg of meat a week, and at Cerza this is divided into five meals; the tigers fast for two days a week to replicate natural feeding patterns. The cubs are now starting to be weaned, and trying their first taste of meat, although they are expected to continue suckling for a few months. They will be on display with their mother, three-year-old Lisa, in an open-air enclosure and it is hoped father Ganesh will be with them.
Visitors will be able to see the family from two vantage points along the “yellow route” around the park. The cubs will remain at Cerza for about 18 months before going to other zoological parks in Europe, where it is hoped they will join breeding programmes. They will not be sold. “We never talk about prices for our animals!” says Mme de Roux-Zellier. “We talk only about the facilities they will have, and how they will be cared for.
We never sell our animals. We trade with other zoos, but it isn’t a question of money, it’s a question of conservation and breeding. “Tigers are very expensive to keep. It costs tens of thousands of Euros just to build an enclosure, so we need to know that their new homes can afford to keep them.” The park, which attracts about 300,000 visitors a year, closes in December and January for a “winter hibernation break”. It will re-open on February 1.
La Couronne restaurant in the centre of Rouen is the oldest inn in France. In fact, it is so old, that when Joan of Arc was burnt in Place du Vieux Marché in front of it in 1431, the restaurant had already been in business for 86 years. The Normandy dialect shares a number of features with the Yorkshire dialect arising from the Old Norse tongue common to both areas. This influence extends not only to general speech but also to place names and terms for landscape features. For example, dale meaning valley is found in both dialects.