Life in Chalabre

Concours de Nouvelles


During the Summer of 2006, with the help of local librarian Noelle Danjou, we organized a short story competition, sponsored by the Mairie de Chalabre, on the theme of Catharism. Several prizes were given and 18 stories were selected to be published in a paperback collection, with a cover is by local artist Genevieve Lehoux. An award ceremony was held at the Town Hall on 30th September which was attended by the Mayor of Chalabre, Christian Guilhamat, the Town Cuncil, Noelle Danjou, the President of the Jury, Philippe Ward, five amongtst the published authors (Mrrs. Navarro, Paul and Sigur and Ms. Faye and Morello), Geneviève Lehoux and members of the local media. Then, it was followed by a banquet at Les Cèdres, the local dining hall.

A New Fresco

The very talented local artist & film set decorator Guy Sahuc (with his wife Agnes) has been commissioned by the equally newly-redecorated Community Center decides to paint a historical fresco on its wall. After much research, both technical and historical, the work has begun... The final fresco, in all its glory.

Local Kids draw comics

2006. Noelle, the wonderful librarian of Chalabre, and Mme. Pericot, a teacher at the local school, organized an afternoon event at the library during which Jean-Marc helped an eager crowd of 10-year-olds each draw their very own Spider-Man comic page. (Spider-Man © Marvel, of course!). The children chose the theme: Spider-Man is on holidays in Tahiti, goes diving and finds a treasure!

After the success of the previous comics workshop, with the help of Noelle Danjou, the wonderful librarian of Chalabre, Jean-Marc organized a 6-week course, attended by a dozen children from the local school, during which each kid wrote and drew his/her own 2-page story, featuring the character of Sally, the mischievious dog owned by Dorine, one of the students.

Fire in Chalabre

Monday, August 15,2005,  7:30 p.m.
Jean-Marc, taking the Diva for a promenade before dinner, was walking along the Rue Notre-Dame when, suddenly, accompanying friend Peter ("The Name of the Nose") Mahon sniffed the air and said:
"It smells like something's burning."
Indeed.
Heavy puffs of whitish smoke were seeping from behind the closed shutters of an empty house located at No. 4.
Two local youths passing by were of no help at all: one claimed his cell phone was out of credit; the other that it had no coverage.
Jean-Marc ran across the corner and chanced upon neighbor Mr. Montoro (Manu's very own uncle) who immediately called the Fire Brigade.
Fifteen minutes later, the local firemen, as well as firetrucks from neighboring village Quillan, were on the spot.

Doors and windows had to be chainsawed open for the firemen to go inside. For a while, there was some concern that the fire had spread to
No. 6's adjacent rooftop, but that proved unfounded.

The causes of the fire remain unknown. Some blamed squatters (?!); others, an electrical short..

Louis Thirion

We were honored to welcome notable SF author Louis Thirion and his wife Anne-Marie.