Collages and the Contest

During a previous "unveiling", I mentioned the 3 large collage panels that now hang in our conference room in the village Mairie.  Unlike my earlier unveiling, all of the photos in these 3 collages are photos of Cadrieu and were taken by a variety of photographers: myself, Greg Nicholas, Jean-Pierre Martenot, Patricia Laroche and Christiane Duponchelle-all members of my Monday afternoon language class.  Greg and I got the frames and put it all together.  We talked about having contests...dots on the collages for which you had to answer-"Where is this?" or asking for suggestions for the name of the collage.  We settled on the contest to name the panels of the collage and during the election of our new Municipal Council-we accepted entries in our red box in the photo there.  We received over 40 entries (one person submitted 15) and ended up with a tie after the vote in one of our language classes:  Greg Nicholas won with Cadrieu Through Our Eyes and Jackie Gardaix won with the Riches of Cadrieu.  The collages are up and a plaque with the winner's names and the names of the photographers hangs along side. Each winner received a calendar and a set of photo cards from me.  It was a lot of fun for me to go up to the Mairie on election day and visit with everyone.  They asked me where many of the photos were taken...most I knew the answers to.  The best part was to see people get excited to see their home, pet, flowers, farm equipment, etc. and to feel special and a part of the project.  I know I felt special.  I'm not the village photographer...yet...but these days, if I show up at an event without my camera everyone thinks I've lost my mind.  This weekend coming up is the meal sponsored by the hunters in the village.  Believe me-my camera will be in my pocket!