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Reflexion on the project of the
Friends of the Priory
If one wanted to define in a few words
the Priory, one could advance a formula "this place, anchored in
Valois, worked by the history".
Let us state simply that the Priory is,
for his/her friends, a site, a symbol, a project.
The Priory is initially a
site which takes part of the beauty of the country of Valois of
which it is integral part; it is thus presumptuous to describe it
after what Gerard de Nerval could say. Nevertheless let us dare to
write that it is a place where the ground and the sky exchange, in a
perpetual motion, their soft colors and their moving forms. On this
site, a patrimonial unit, whose essential elements were safeguarded,
continues as if it were definitively moored there. The Priory,
inhabited, thus preserves the testimony of the life of the men since
the time medieval, and certainly front, until our days. These
nuptials of nature and the history, the crown of the old villages,
the environment of the fields, the rivers and ponds, the dark or
bluish edge of the forests, cause the admiring astonishment of the
visitor. To become aware of its single nature with the conviction
that it is necessary to make it live and, we wish it, to make it
breathe at the rate/rhythm of our time, is a pledge that this place
can be able to continue its ocean voyage in time. The recent
creation of the Regional Natural reserve in which its
existence must fit can only consolidate this step of which the
ambition is with the height of the stake.
Symbol of the permanence of the men on
the site, the buildings of farm, houses barns cattle sheds, the
pigeon one, the vault, established since centuries, form a unit
whose harmony allures immediately. Its unit delivers a sign which
indicates that the walk of time and the advance of the men can
create without destroying, to improve without denaturing, to bring
the new one without erasing. This unit is ordered starting from the
Vault, with the simplicity which can sometimes offer, like one
present, the print of work and the days.
The rehabilitation of this
building, which is of architectural and historical interest major
since it has already its place, recognized, among the Gothic
monuments of its nature and its dimension in Picardy and Island of
France, is already committed. It is one of the reasons which led the
inhabitants of the place to create an association. It is indeed a
question of giving to this operation a broader base and a fuller
opening, to more easily make it possible to restore the monument, of
an exceptional dash, closest to its significance first.
Rehabilitation certainly, but which
offers also the advisability of reflecting on the finalities of the
site, to imagine the ways and the means to answer new requirements.
The idea of an association, founded on these bases, met an
unhoped-for reception thus. The often impassioned interest, which
immediately appeared, was accompanied by a will to translate it into
acts. After a first concert in 2004, the spectacle "Skin of ass" in
May 2005, fruit of the work of 150 voluntary people, gathered nearly
2000 witnesses of all ages. The movement is launched, the paste
starts to raise, it is necessary for consequence to continue.
It is advisable from now on to make so
that the initiatives, operations, events which must animate this
place of life register in a project and draw their coherence there.
It must be with the height of the quality of the site, of what it
represents, of what he can symbolize in our century. It will be
especially what we will bring to him.
This is why our project must be
strongly based on a will, which continued and on the already
committed reflexion. It should be enriched by a joint effort by all
the friends by the Priory. This reflexion can be developed around
several axes among which orientations are to be privileged.
- To open the site with the
greatest number, and initially with its immediate or close
environment, within the framework of the principles and the
objectives of the charter of the Natural reserve and in a concern of
safeguarding and of promoting the spirit which characterizes the
place.
- To arrange the site and the
patrimonial unit, the vault while being the focal point, to
translate symbolically and concretely will of opening, reception and
exchange.
- To define and propose the
initiatives and the actions most suitable to open out within
this framework. If an orientation towards cultural activities
should not be isolated, it would be interesting to explore all the
other possibilities; for example the demonstrations, events, actions
or activities could be welcome aiming at enriching the social bond
by, in particular, the meeting of the ideas and the dialogue, the
transfer of the savoirs, the practical application of competences,
the exchange and the confrontation of the experiments.
It will be of primary importance to
pay a detailed attention to the young people, their aspirations, the
means of answering it with the concern that the relations and the
contacts between the generations enrich the initiatives taken in
this field.
The Association of the Friends of the
Priory must be, thus, space where spreads itself and a reflexion of
this nature is nourished. It must bring to the project its dynamism
and its force. From this point of view, it belongs to you, Amis of
the PRIORY, to express your ideas and your waitings so that this
place is that which we wish.
Andre Rot |
