Punctuated by Covid-19, vaccination and anti-ax demonstrations, the year 2021 has still given way to good news. The puppet festival has resumed, judoka Axel Clerget won gold at the Olympic Games, the champagne museum has opened in Épernay … Retrospective.
Covid-19, again and again … But not only! So, yes if we look in the rearview mirror, the health crisis has once again entered the daily life of the French during this year 2021. But the virus can not eclipse the rest of the news and the good news which have marked Champagne-Ardenne over the past twelve months. We rewind.
January: start of vaccination
A year ago, France embarked on a long collective fight against Covid-19. His weapon? The vaccine. The latter becomes the promise to end the pandemic which is sclerosing the country. Despite a delay in ignition, over the days, the bites will be more and more numerous. And to cope, vaccinodromes are emerging everywhere.
First, hospitals, nursing homes, then gymnasiums, performance halls and schools are being redeveloped to accommodate millions of French people who have come to have their first dose of Pfizer-BioNtech, Moderna or AstraZeneca injected.
In Troyes, the cube, the Troyes Champagne metropolis exhibition center, is transformed into a giant vaccination center, the largest in the Aube department. In December of this year, nearly 2,000 daily doses are still injected there for the Covid booster.
To vaccinate as many people as possible, and to leave no one behind, communities are rolling up their sleeves. Example in the urban community of Greater Reims, which launches its vacci’bus on January 19, an itinerant bus chartered in 46 municipalities with less than 250 inhabitants.
Twelve months after the first injections, the French are again called upon to perform their booster dose. The fight is not over.
March: a new Olympic basin in Reims
Good news in this gloomy climate at the start of the year. Friday, March 5, in the morning, the thermometer displays 3 small degrees. No time to put on your swimsuit, and yet, that day, dozens of swimmers came to inaugurate the outdoor swimming pool of the brand new aqualudic complex, theUCPA sport station, at Reims.
This outdoor Nordic pool measures 50 meters, offers 4 swimming lanes and water at 27 degrees. Long-awaited equipment, while the health crisis has long postponed its opening.
May: Champagne has its museum in Epernay
It opens its doors on May 29 in the magnificent setting of Château Perrier, a former private mansion located on Avenue Champagne in Epernay. After 10 years of work, the Museum of Champagne Wine and Regional Archeology offers a new place of culture to the inhabitants of the region.
In total, the museum has 100,000 works of which 2,500 are exhibited to the public on two floors. The first is devoted to wine and its history. The second focuses on the archeology and history of the people of Champagne. “We wanted to replace Champagne in its territory and its history, explains the mayor of Epernay, Franck Leroy, during the inauguration of the place. What we wanted was to recall everything that happened before: how man appeared in Champagne, why viticulture appeared in Champagne. “
June: Reims under water
Disaster on the City of Coronations. This Friday, June 4, the sky is unleashed before the eyes of the dumbfounded inhabitants. Thunderstorm and torrential rains hit the city in just a few hours, causing extensive damage without causing injury. This will be the first episode in a series of major floods plunging Reims under water on three occasions.
The images are astounding. In the streets, where the water level sometimes rises up to a meter, the tires of cars disappear. Residents join their house soaked up to the thighs. Several roads were cut off to traffic, many cellars and basements were flooded. Stores, such as Décathlon in the commercial area of Cormontreuil, near Reims, are even forced to close shop, while it is drying up.
Huge floods at #Reims. Many vehicles blocked. Basements under water. pic.twitter.com/xsGLVD8ujr
– Damien Canivez (@DCanivez) June 4, 2021
It is Avenue Jean Jaurès, which, once again, will pay the heaviest price for these floods. Monday, June 21, after a third episode of flooding, Carine, one of the residents of the avenue, expressed all her exasperation at the microphone of France 3: “We can’t take it anymore, it’s the third time, it’s a disaster, we are in a state of total astonishment. We thought that the city was going to do something. Two weeks ago, all the cars of the street were damaged. Two days ago, it was the same and there, rebelte tonight. My car is already at the garage. I’m going to be afraid to park it in the street. “
In reaction, the town hall of Reims promises “to start major works by the end of 2021, beginning of 2022, near the Saint-André church in order to replace the pipes which date from the end of the First World War and which are no longer able to absorb heavy rains “.
June: the Marnais Daniel Rondeau becomes immortal
On Thursday, June 6, the writer Daniel Rondeau was elected to the Académie Française, in the first round with 18 votes against Jean-Christian Petitfils (6 votes). The 71-year-old, a former journalist at Libération and Le Nouvel Observateur, managed to join the institution of the Quai Conti, where he had failed several times between 2011 and 2016.
Daniel Rondeau was born in Mesnil-sur-Oger in the Marne in 1948. He is the author of around thirty books, including history books and novels. From 2008 to 2011, he was also French Ambassador to Malta, before being appointed by Nicolas Sarkozy as Permanent Delegate of France to Unesco.
June: at Lac du Der, a gigantic aquatic park
The largest in Europe boasts of its creator! On June 12, the Aquader caused a sensation and became the big novelty of the year on the Lac du Der (Marne). Postponed for a year because of the Covid-19, this giant 4,500 m² water park is finally floating. After a bland summer 2020, children and adults finally rediscover the pleasure of having fun together. This new activity area has some 90 slides, trampolines and other diving boards.
June: Jean Rottner takes over for a second term
At the end of the month of June, the French obviously do not have their heads in politics. It is against a background of record abstention that the departmental and regional elections take place on Sunday June 20 and 27, 2021.
In the Grand Est, the Republican Jean Rottner takes advantage of the outgoing bonus and takes over for a second term at the head of the Region. With 40.30% in the second round, he easily won against RN candidate Laurent Jacobelli (26.3%) and environmentalist Éliane Romani (21.22%).
“The much-maligned Grand Est has a reason to exist, declared the re-elected president during his first speech, reaffirming the identity of his region. The will to create a new administrative structure has no reason to exist. “
July: anti-pass and anti-tax events
The vaccination campaign launched since the beginning of the year and the introduction of the health pass in July brought with them a wave of protests which affected, among others, the cities of Reims, Charleville, Saint-Dizier, Châlons and even Troyes. .
The first demonstration against the restrictions on individual freedoms takes place on Saturday July 17. That day, in Reims, nearly 2,000 people marched from the town hall. In the crowd, slogans bloom: “No to the health dictatorship”, “Stop the health pass” and “to be free of my choices”.
The obligation to vaccinate caregivers is also at the heart of the demands and gives rise to fear among some that this constraint will extend to the entire population. A fear still relevant today.
Summer: the big comeback of festivals
The Puppet Festival and the Face B festival (Cabaret Vert) in Charleville-Mézières, the animal photo festival in Montier-en-Der or the Châlons Fair … After cascading cancellations in the summer of 2020, festival time is (almost) back!
The World Puppet Theater Festival is back in mid-September, in the Ardennes, on the occasion of its sixtieth anniversary. Striking image of this edition, the meeting of visitors with the “little Amale” on the Place Ducale. This giant puppet, more than 3.5 meters long, made the trip from the Syrian border to highlight the issue of migrants. A moving spectacle.
This summer, the Ardennes prefecture is also reviving music. Because, if the Cabaret Vert festival had to change its formula because of the pandemic, Face B, its alternative, offers 217 musical and cultural events, between August 19 and September 26. High point of this meeting, the concert of Benjamin Biolay on the edge of the Meuse on August 27.
For its part, the Fair of Châlons finds its visitors, to the greatest pleasure. Between September 3 and 13, nearly 240,000 people walk the aisles of the second largest agricultural fair in France. “What we have seen this year is the rebirth of purchasing volume and it is unexpected, said Bruno Forget, curator of the event. We also observed the happiness of people, they said thank you. We did not really believe in this edition. There, it gives us a breath, it gives us a boost “.
Summer: Clerget, Kouakou, Créange … Olympic medalists
At the Tokyo Olympics, they make Champagne-Ardenne shine. Among the 33 medals won by France, there is the gold of Axel Clerget in Judo, the bronze of Endy Miyem in basketball, and the bronze of table tennis player Lucas Créange in the Paralympic.
Let’s start with Axel Clerget. At 34, Bragard won gold in the mixed judo team final. The Haut-Marnais defeated the Japanese Shoichiro Mukai on an Ippon, after a long and disputed fight. A precious point that helps build France’s victory, 4 matches to 1, in this final.
Then there is the beautiful story of Endy Miyem. Stunned after a defeat in the semi-finals against the Japanese basketball players, the Rémoise and captain of the Bleues re-mobilizes her teammates. Against the Serbs, the tricolors show a whole different face to win the bronze. After the London silver in 2012, Endy Miyem won his second Olympic medal.
Finally, there is the first Paralympic medal for table tennis player Lucas Créange. Licensed in Reims and integrated into the French table tennis pole at Creps de Poitiers, the latter won bronze after being narrowly beaten by the Hungarian Peter Palos at the gates of the final.
September: he sees Kaamelot 204 times, Arnaud Klein’s crazy challenge
Did he miss the cinemas closed during the Covid? He made up for it. Arnaud Klein has watched the same film 204 times, in this case Kaamelot by Alexandre Astier. This earned it entry into the Guinness Book of Records, in the “most cinema productions attended of the same film” category (same film seen the most times in the cinema).
From July 20 to September 18, this freelance editor and videographer attended three or four screenings of the film per day, breaking the previous record set at 191 views. At the end of this crazy adventure, the 34-year-old said to himself “iron” but above all “relieved” to have finished.
This challenge allowed Arnaud Klein to meet twice the director of Kaamelot, very close to his fans, who watched the film alongside him during its 202nd session. And this is the least recognition …
