Version Française

Our annual meeting of collectors of labels, hangtags and fruit wrappers took place in Coudekerque-Branche (Nord) on Saturday 21st and Sunday 22nd of April 2018.
Already 12! Few people would have thought, at the beginning of this adventure in 2006, that it would have endured that long!

For the meeting of 2018 , Élodie DEMARETZ once again volunteered to be the local organizer, having succeeded the first time around in 2014.
For this meeting, let us congratulate the participants for making the trip to the gates of Dunkirk.

FRANCE :

- Alain SQUADRELLI, (6 participations before the one of 2018) the creator of our poster and collector of fruit wrappers, accompanied for the first time by his wife
- Élodie DEMARETZ (4 participations) organizer of the 2018 event, multi-collector of legufru articles, assisted in her task by her parents Tintin and DD
- Coralie DETHIERE (1 participation)
- Jean-Pierre BERNARD (8 participations)
- Carole LOISON (3 participations)
- Marie-Madeleine MURINGER (3 participations) accompanied by Jean-Pierre
- Gérard BEIX (9 participations)
- Elisabeth PIERRET (1 participation), collector of fruit wrappers
- J-Gabriel GIRAUDEAU (11 participations)
- Didier SALAMON (11 participations), current 3rd place collector of fruit wrappers and labels too.

BELGIUM :

- Xavier HEYTE (9 participations)
- John VAN DROOGENBROECK (3 participations)
- Natalie VAN DAMME (2 participations)
- Eugène VERDOOD (2 participations)

ITALY :

- Marco GANDINI (3 participations) accompanied by Nadia.

Saturday, April 20, 2018

The town hall of Coudekerque-Branche is kind enough to provide a room for us free of charge. The meeting is therefore in a communal room called "Jean Rostand Hall”.
Upon arrival, participants are reassured by the presence of the police precinct nearby. No doubt, no one will dare come and steal labels or fruit wrappers or try a legufru holdup!

At 9 am, the participants have already almost completely assembled and at 10 am the room is full, they are all there.
Once seated, collectors do not lose a moment to start trading. Workbooks, albums, index cards, travel at high speed from table to table, from hand to hand.
At 11 am, Didier SALAMON is filmed and interviewed by the "Grand littoral TV" channel.
The first break is at 12:30 pm, before lunch.
A legulotto is organized. Each participant had to put an envelope with 100 labels in an urn. Names of 3 collectors are drawn at random. The first selected is Gerard BEIX who gets 4 envelopes. Then it's the turn of Marco GANDINI to choose 4. Carole LOISON picks up the last 3 from the table.

The meal is eaten together in the cafeteria of the CORA store in the city center of Coudekerque-Branche.

But already 2 pm rings and announces the resumption of the legufrus engagements.
At the beginning of the afternoon, a journalist from the internet channel "Flanders TV" comes to interview and film Élodie DEMARETZ.
The second break of 4 pm is more academic and official. Collectors welcome Benoît VANDEWALLE, 1st Deputy Mayor of Coudekerque-Branche. After he has visited all the tables to greet the participants, he is asked to choose the most beautiful piece of art from among the 8 that were created with outstanding originality.

3 works are pre-selected before the jury (Mr. Deputy Mayor and a young girl) that determine the winner and offer a beautiful pen set.
- 1st prize Coralie DETHIERE for her carnival pineapple made of folded fruit wrappers
- 2nd prize Jean-Gabriel GIRAUDEAU for a placemat named Lulu's sun (name of a citrus leaf-shaped label)
- 3rd prize Élisabeth PIERRET for her table lamp decorated with citrus wrappers.

The toast offered by the town hall comes to close this official interlude.

At 7 pm the exchanges are over. Then comes cleaning and locking up the room before departure for a restaurant by the sea in Dunkerque for those who signed up for it.

Sunday, April 21, 2018

It is now a tradition appreciated by all with Sunday morning devoted to a tourist visit or a side activity which would be an unusual departure for the collectors.
Elodie, helped by a warm and generous sun, chose for us a visit to Mount Cassel and a city by the same name.
After walking through small streets and its city center, enjoying local monuments and other attractions, the group enters a restaurant (estaminet) named Het Kasteelhof to taste with delight the traditional cuisine of Flanders

At 2 pm, it was time to say goodbye before everyone returned home, except for our Italian couple who were prolonging their vacation to visit Amsterdam.

The next meeting

At the time of publication of this report of the 12th meeting, there is the question of organizing of our 13th meeting in 2019.
We are therefore looking for a local collector and a place where he/she can organize the meeting, between the beginning of March and the 15th of April.
Certain conditions need to be met:
- A volunteer organizer that would be eager to welcome collectors to his/her city
- A meeting hall free of charge, since we have no budget, or a hall that could be had for a minimal rental fee which would be spread among the participants to derive a very small sum per person
- Have proximity to restaurants and hotels to accommodate the participants.
The potential host volunteers should let themselves be known to Jean-Gabriel and Didier before the 1st of August, so that the date and destination would be arrived at soon.

Some pictures...