French Version
The 9th meeting of crazy collectors of labels and fruit wrappers just ended.
We, the Organizing Committee, do not normally evaluate or rank our get togethers . However, we are pleased to acknowledge that Coudekerque-Branche will remain among one of the finest meetings. This is in a large part due to the local organizing committee headed by Elodie Demaretz helped by her mother Dorothée. They have done an exceptional job that deserves to be highly praised. They are modest and easily blush when complimented, however me must insist that they accept our praise because it is well-deserved.
So let's review the highlights of this ninth meeting that was, as always, held under the auspices of friendship and joy.
This year’s attendees:
Alain SQUADRELLI (France)
Rony WOUTERS (Belgium)
John VAN DROOGENBROECK (Belgium)
Marco GANDINI (Italia)
Marie-Madeleine MURINGER (France)
Élodie et Dorothée DEMARETZ (France)
Deborah WATHELET et Véronique MASSON (Belgium)
Jean-Pierre BERNARD (France)
Carole LOISON (France)
Xavier HEYTE (Belgium)
Antoine BIWER (France)
Max DANA (France)
Didier SALAMON (France)
J-Gabriel GIRAUDEAU (France)
Nikolaus BIESENKAMP (Germany)
Francine HOENICKE (France)
Gérard BEEKEMA (Netherlands)
Gérard BEIX (France)
Michel HAINAUT (France)
Nico VERSCHUREN (Netherlands)
From left to right : Nico VERSCHUREN, Rony WOUTERS, Marie-Madeleine MURINGER, J-Gabriel GIRAUDEAU, Carole LOISON, Deborah WATHELET, Véronique MASSON, Isabelle BIWER, Nick BIESEKAMP, Xavier HEYTE, Antoine BIWER, John VAN DROOGENBROECK, Elodie DEMARETZ, Alain SQUADRELLI, Michel HAINAUT, Gerard BEEKEMA, Marco GANDINI, Jean-Pierre BERNARD, Dorothée DEMARETZ, Didier SALAMON, Gérard BEIX, Francine HOENICKE, Max DANA, Hélène DANA
We loved (in random order):
Elodie’s organization of the meeting and all her preparatory work
The presence of the great grand cousin of Tintin, Jean-François DEMARETZ
The presence of three new collectors who were unanimously judged very friendly. Two of them, Marie Magdalene and Marco were promoted to the the rank of Legufru sergeant. Colonel John has already been in our ranks prior to the meeting!
- John VAN DROOGENBROECK (Belgium)
- Marie-Madeleine MURINGER (France)
- Mario GANDINI (Italia)
The arrival of our first Italian collector since 2005, Mario GANDINI and his wife, from Milan
The return to our ranks, after a shorter or longer absence, of Nico VERSCHUREN (Netherlands), Nikolaus BIESENKAMP (Germany), Carole LOISON (France) and Rony WOUTERS (Belgium)
The North and its beautiful sun except......
The extraordinary media coverage this year:
- FR3 Opal Coast TV channel sent a reporter and a cameraman who stayed for a good part of the morning, and were both surprised and taken over by what was going on
- The regional press “La Voix du Nord”
- The local press and magazines that covered our meetings beautifully
- Europe 1, the Friday before the meeting, where Elodie was a guest of Cyril HANOUNA’s program and was interviewed by him and Pierre BELLEMARE.
- The illuminated display
The City Council who generously provided us with a meeting hall, infrastructure, media coverage, under the leadership of its dynamic mayor David BAILLEUL who graced us with his presence. He toured the hall for an hour and interacted with collectors. He then chaired the contest and invited all the participants for a drink afterwards
Dorothée Demaretz, a winner of the competition for the best work
The eight contest participants who once again displayed their originality (Francine HOENICKE (France) - Gérard BEEKEMA (Netherlands) - Max DANA (France) - Dorothy DEMARETZ (France) - J-Gabriel GIRAUDEAU (France) - Carole LOISON (France) - Jean-Pierre BERNARD (France) and Nico VERSCHUREN (Netherlands)
The influx of many visitors on Saturday afternoon
Sunday morning devoted to tourism
- Small walk on the beach of Dunkerque
- A visit to the town of Bergues made famous by Dany BOON’s movie “Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis” that was screened Saturday night in the meeting hall.
The meal at the gourmet restaurant “Le Bruegel" in Bergues
The many gifts
was less liked:
Rain at the French fries stall on Saturday night
The name of John VAN DROOGENBROECK, impossible to pronounce, which evolved into VAN MACHIN
Nobody spoke Italian, Alain Squadrelli had to make an emergency call to Rome to deal with a thorny problem
Didier, addressing the mayor, likened Coudekerque-Branche (27 000 inhabitants) to a small village
Didier once more; this was not his year because he forgot the diploma of Jean-Pierre BERNARD
The absence of those we like and who could not come
Xavier did not take advantage of the meeting to ask Isabelle to marry him
2015:
2015 will be a special year for Legufrufolies with the tenth anniversary of our meetings.
Ten years of existence, it is extraordinary since we are not an organization in the legal sense of the term and we can often get together only thanks to the generosity of our local hosts (GONDECOURT - ERMONT - PARIS - COUDEKERQUE BRANCHE).
As proposed by Deborah and Veronica, an offer that could not be refused, the 10th meeting will take place in Belgium, in a prestigious setting, a few kilometers from Namur. The final date could not be arrived at yet but it still must be a weekend in October 2015. We also hope to bring together most of those who, from Nanterre in 2005, made legufrufolies successful.
Again thank you to those who have been with us for so many years and who, by their presence, contributed to the success of these meetings.
9th Légufrufolies, Coudekerque-Branche, October 4th and 5th, 2014