Les Forums Quartiers du CNJ

First, apologies are in order for having not written in so long! I will do my best to touch a little a bit of everything but I'm afraid the next few will be a bit shorter so I can catch up.

Though the long vacation has arrived and everything has quieted down a bit, the end of the year was filled with activities for local youth. The Conseil Nantais de la Jeunesse hosted two special events in two of Nantes outer neighborhoods, Malakoff and Breil. These "Forums Quartiers" gave the chance for local youth to learn more about ways they can become involved in their community and gave me and others the chance to learn more about the issues that touch these parts of this city we all share.

In Malakoff, debates on the topics of boy-girl relationships, stereotypes, and discrimination were punctuated by excellent musical and dance performances by local groups. In Breil, local teens of the Cite du Monde project presented their own compositions, and several groups presented opportunities for the local youth to become involved in putting together their own short film, joining their neighborhood's rugby team, or decorating a bike and riding their bike for the benefit of the environment.

As always, I was impressed by how dynamic this city is and how much attention is given to what the youth have to say and what actions they are interested in taking. It was also interesting to see that no matter where you go, we are often all affected by the same issues, like discrimination. On the positive side, it is encouraging to see that there are others carrying on this struggle and suceeding in overcoming these issues.

Bienvenue!/Welcome!

Bonjour from Nantes! Please allow me to introduce myself- I'm a senior at the University of Washington with a major in French Literature and a minor in Music. I am finishing my studies through my internship here in Nantes as the Seattle Young Ambassador. The two questions I most often get back home are, "Where is Nantes?" and "So exactly what does a young ambassador do?" (Here in Nantes, I get the same, except that they ask where Seattle is, hence my blog's title "You know Seattle too?") To answer your questions, Nantes is Seattle's sister city, and is located near the Atlantic just below the Brittany region. It's an absolutely stunning city, and I hope sharing my six months here will stir your interest in coming here yourself. As for my work, I work for both the Association Jumelage Nantes-Seattle-Jacksonville (the counterpart for the Seattle-Nantes Sister City Association) and the Conseil Nantais de la Jeunesse (the Nantes Youth Council). I will be assisting in projects that support the sister city relationship and inform the youth of it, such as the Quinzaine Americaine, a two-week festival taking place in early December that features lectures and concerts on everything that represents this unique connection. I'll also have the chance to propose some of my own projects, which I will keep you updated on as time goes on. Please feel free to leave your comments and questions here about absolutely anything!

Et pour mes collègues francophones !

Permettez-moi de me présenter- Je suis étudiante à l’Université de Washington à Seattle. Ma spécialisation est la littérature française et j’étudie également la musique. Je complète mes études en faisant un stage à Nantes comme la Jeune Ambassadeur de Seattle. Souvent on me demande, « Où se trouve Seattle ? » et « Que fais-tu comme Jeune Ambassadeur ? » En premier, Seattle est la ville jumelée de Nantes, et se trouve au Nord-Ouest des Etats-Unis. Je trouve ma ville très belle et intéressante, et j’espère que en la partageant avec vous que je vous pique la curiosité de la visiter. Quant à mon travail, je travaille en même temps pour l’Association Jumelage Nantes-Seattle-Jacksonville et le Conseil Nantais de la Jeunesse. J’assiste à des projets qui se concerne des rapports entre Nantes et sa ville jumelée, comme la Quinzaine Américaine, qui aura lieu au début de décembre. J’aurai aussi l’opportunité de proposer mes propres projets, dont je vous tiendrai au courant. Veuillez me poser des questions ou me laisser des commentaires sur n’importe quoi !

Nantes, un ville "green"

Before arriving in Nantes, I heard from others- study-abroad students, SNSCA members, Nantes Young Ambassador Anais- that Nantes is a good match for Seattle in so much as that it's very green. They weren't kidding! As much as there is of cultural interest here- the Castle of the Dukes of Brittany, the Lieu Unique (former LU cookie factory transformed in cultural center), the Court of 50 Hostages- I've found myself consistently attracted to the city's many green spaces. My first day in Nantes, my host sister Florianne went with me for a bike ride on the Ehrdes. Ever since, I keep returning to the river banks (there are three rivers here, and canals), the parks, the lawn on the moat, and soak in the sun for a little while. Just today I discovered the Jardin des Plantes, originally planted during the reign of Louis XIV, located just outside downtown, across from the train station. While it's about the same size of the arboretum in Madison Valley, and has many of the same vegetation- rhododendrons, foxglove, evergreens, and even an Iris that came from the UW arboretum itself- it's very "French" in the sense that there isn't a leaf out of place. Each view from each pathway is well-placed, every nook and cranny is designed, and workers abound putting in new plants for the change of season. It's very quaint in how perfect it seems with doves and waterfalls abounding, but my previous experience in Paris parks tell me that it's not just for me, the tourist- the park is a part of the city's heritage and is appreciated regularly by its inhabitants.

Nantes is surprisingly "green" in the other sense too. While much of France is conscientious on some green topics, such as GMO's, water quality, etc., others, like air pollution, alternative fuel sources, recycling, are still developing on the social and political scene. Here in Nantes, however, sustainable development is very present in the media, in the city's fabric, and in the conversations I've had with the locals. This past Thursday I had the opportunity to visit Valorena, the local waste treatment facility, with other members of the Conseil Nantais de la Jeunesse (Nantes Youth Council). There, I learned more about the local "Tri-Sac" system (tri comes the word "trier," which means "to sort") that my host family had demonstrated to me at the house. The system is very simple: recycling goes in yellow bags, waste goes in blue bags. The bags are provided to residents free of charge, and unlike the system in Seattle (unless of course, it has changed, which it does often), all bags go into the same bin, and are collected by the same trucks, making it not only more efficient but less costly. The bags are sorted by a machine that isolates the yellow bags on the conveyor belt and sweeps them away into a truck that delivers the bags to a recycling center in eastern France. All the other bags pass on to a carefully developed incinerator and filtering system. The heat generated by the incinerator is diverted through a unique system to the surrounding neighborhoods, extending right into downtown Nantes. As for the fumes, they are filtered through such an efficient process that the (very little) fumes passing through the chimney have fewer dioxyines than that produced by all the domestic fires (barbeques, chimneys, etc) in Nantes. Indeed, it was difficult to tell if the chimney was even in operation as we approached the facility from the road.

Yes, there have been some difficulties in setting up this process- there's the need to educate the public on what is recyclable and what is not, the system in distributing cards to the residents for picking up their bags is a bit complex, and in the separate facility treating waste from the hospitals, they have had to educate the hospitals to send all body parts to the crematorium and not place them in the waste (yes, when this system was set up in 1997, a worker spotted an arm hanging out of one of the waste bins). But overall, the improvements are immense! For example, previous to Valorena, local hospitals simply incinerated everything at the hospital, with little to no treatment of the fumes. Many French cities do not have recycling sorting systems or the means to reuse the energy produced in their incinerator, or may not have an incinerator at all. While Germany is the leader in recycling in Europe, France is not too far behind.

And there are improvements yet to come- Valorena anticipates adding a green sack to its system for composting. While there are several personal composters in the outlying neighborhoods where there are community gardens, downtown residents don't necessarily have their own gardens to make use of compost. With a green sack, again collected with the other sacks in the same truck, all residents will be able to seperate compost, which will then be collected and composted together, and then, I imagine, redistributed. Valorena will also be constructing a second site for this new system in a "green" building that uses a minimal amount of energy, collects rainwater for use on site, has vegetation growing on the facade, and more.

Et pour mes collègues francophones !

Je trouve vos initiatives et vos projets « green » à Nantes très impressionants ! J’aimerais partager avec vous le système de recyclage de Seattle. À Seattle, le recyclage, c’est la loi ! Depuis 2004, c’est interdit de mettre des objets recyclable dans la poubelle désigné pour les déchets aux maisons et également dans les entreprises. Si on ne respecte pas cette loi, on n’est plus servi et les poubelles restent plein jusqu’à que le propriétaire ressorte ses déchets. Cet an, on a ajouté une service pour les déchets agricoles recyclables. On n’est pas forcé à utiliser cette service si on déjà fait le compostage chez soi, mais les autres sont exigés de l’utiliser.