Coping with Covid
During the Covid-19 pandemic, members of the Sister City Committees in Honfleur and Burlington met by Zoom in order to maintain communication and discuss subjects of mutual interest. Hosted by Burlington’s Town Meeting Television, they held two conversations that were recorded and broadcast as part of the channel’s regular programming.
In the first conversation, in October 2020, Honfleur mayor Michel Lamarre described how the pandemic was affecting life in Honfleur and in France generally.
Recording date: October 26, 2020
Length: 28 minutes
Producer: Town Meeting TV, Burlington
In the second conversation, members of the Sister City Committee discussed a new e-commerce platform that the city of Honfleur had created to help businesses continue to operate under Covid restrictions.
Participants:
Anthony Bry-Faik, of the Honfleur Tourist Office, who helped develop the platform
Christophe Lefebvre, owner and manager of the Brasserie L’Alcyone in Honfleur
Patricia Sausseau, deputy mayor of Honfleur, in charge of commerce and local life
Fran Stoddard, member of the Burlington-Honfleur Sister City Committee (moderator)
Richard Gliech, member of the Burlington-Honfleur Sister City Committee (translator)
Recording date: March 29, 2021
Length: 26 minutes
Producer: Town Meeting TV, Burlington
Melons de Honfleur (part 2)
In November 2019, Mayor Lamarre gave Dana vanderHeyden some seeds of the melon de Honfleur. Back in the United States, Dana shared the seeds with Burlington-Honfleur committee member Lisa Schamberg, and during the summer of 2020 both women cultivated melons in their gardens. They sent photos to Pierre as well as seeds from their harvest. Eventually Pierre shared of those seeds with friends in Honfleur’s other sister cities. Much of this took place during the pandemic so it was, as Dana said, an enjoyable way to stay in touch.
Pierre wrote up the story in the issue of HOWOSABUVIV, the magazine in which he reports events related to all of their sister cities: HOnfleur, WOrth (Germany), SAndwich, BUrlington, VIsé. The last “V” stood for IVanava in Russia. (They dropped this relationship after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.)