France/ Twinning ends after 48 years: Flers creates a place for an African town
The twinning arrangement between the towns of Flers and Poundou in Burkina-Faso has been suspended due to the difficulty of exchanges. However, the town decided to create a dedicated space.
In the presence of Florence Rigal, director of the Flers media library, Yves Goasdoué, mayor of Flers (Orne) and president of Flers Agglo, Yvette Lerichomme and Françoise Mulot, the Flers media library inaugurated a new space, Flers-Poundou, accompanied by the symbolic installation of two palaver benches on Saturday, September 13, 2025.
A reorganization of the media library
The event, marked by an exhibition, pays tribute to almost half a century of solidarity between Flers and the Burkinabe village of Poundou, as well as to the memory of Léopold Séguin.to the memory of Léopold Sédar Senghor, first president of Senegal and academician, who came to Flers in 1985 to give a lecture on the French-speaking world.
The inauguration is part of a wider redevelopment of the media library, which has opened up new corridors to accommodate more thematic areas. Two palaver trees have been added to the inner patio, but are currently inaccessible to the public due to construction work.
A simple, convivial ceremony
Some thirty members and seven elected representatives attended the inauguration. The palaver benches, designed in the shape of an 8, were conceived to encourage circulation and symbolize exchange.
Made by the carpenters of the technical services of the town of Flers, it bears a commemorative plaque with the quotation: "It always seems impossible until you do it".
The bench was donated by the Flers-Poundou-Burkina Faso association, active from 1978 to 2004.
A showcase for international solidarity
The exhibition retraces the work of the Flers-Poundou association, founded in 1975 and active until its dissolution at the end of 2024.
Since 1977, the association has carried out numerous projects in Burkina Faso.
- Education: construction of two schools, a college and literacy programs.
- Health: creation of a dispensary.
- Access to water: construction of boreholes.
- Economy: support for markets, development of market gardens managed by the women's committee.
For more than forty years, delegations from Flérien have visited Poundou every year to check on achievements and prepare new projects, until travel was interrupted in 2018 due to insecurity in the country.
Tributes and testimonials
During the ceremony, Françoise Mulot, former president of Flers-Poundou, recalled the meaning of this human adventure: "The real means that count are not financial, they are human."
For his part, Yves Goasdoué, Mayor of Flers and President of Flers Agglo, hailed "48 années of solidarity projects, productive and concrete links in health, the economy and education".
He also expressed his only regret: never having been able to make the trip to Poundou.
Memory and future
As well as taking stock of the situation, the inauguration was intended to inscribe this shared history in a place of culture, so that "what was lived over there continues to live here...", in the words of the mayor. The mediatheque team had prepared an exhibition rich in images and archives, to recall the strength of these exchanges founded on solidarity, sharing and mutual enrichment.
The ceremony concluded with a show organized as part of Caen's millennium celebrations, sealing the event under the banner of friendship and fraternity.
With future work planned for the François-Mitterrand esplanade and the Forum, the Flers Médiathèque is now looking to the future, while keeping the memory of Flers-Poundou alive.
Source: actu.fr/normandie/
