Une présence québécoise et française en Vermont
The April AFLCR Pause Midi talk was provided by Lise Veronneau of Burlington. Over the past few decades, Lise has become a major spokesperson for France, Québec, and the francophone world in general in Vermont. For her contributions to building these international relationships, she was awarded in 2019 the title of Madame le Chevalier in the Ordre National du Mérite de France. Then in 2021, in recognition of her ongoing activities, she became the Honorary Consul of France in Vermont, succeeding Ernie Pomerleau. In light of these roles, she was invited to present a Pause Midi talk to help us understand both what she has done and how we, as members of the AFLCR, could work productively with her toward promoting things French (in a broad sense) in our region.
Lise is descended from 17th-century French immigrants to Québec, with an ancestry in Normandy and the Loire region. Although living in Vermont, she has relations in Montérégie and maintains her Québécois connections and, of course, her French.
While working for the City of Burlington, her knowledge of French became increasingly known, and she emerged as the go-to person for French whenever there was an interpreter or translation issue. These francophone services to the city developed into a position in which she would represent Burlington in various public, francophone-oriented events in Vermont. For example, she has been part of the annual international Francophony Flag-raising event in Montpelier and the flag raising in Burlington over the last 12 years, involving France and Canada.
Her role as the Honorary Consul of France provides her with connections to the French Consulate in Boston and enables her to provide advice and consular connections to French and Americans living in Vermont. It resulted in an invitation in December 2022 to the White House ceremony and the French embassy reception in Washington, D.C., on the occasion of French president Emmanuel Macron’s state visit to the United States.
Of particular interest to AFLCR members, and the topic on which she talked the most, Lise is the Burlington chair of the committee for the Sister City relationship between Burlington and Honfleur, Normandy. She also facilitated the Sister City arrangement with Yaroslavl, Russia, providing a French-language connection with the francophone Russian counterparts. Currently, she is involved in preliminary efforts to establish a Sister City relationship with St.-Jean-sur-Richelieu, just across the border in Québec. The questions, with respect to the Honfleur connection in particular, concerned the nature of the exchanges and how one might develop mutually beneficial relationships.
With respect to these questions, Lise emphasized that the exchanges can concern almost any topic in which there is a common interest. She provided examples of art exhibitions, youth group visits involving athletic events, business connections, technology sharing, and general cultural communication. These links can exist as individual projects, or they can be integrated into the organized visits of groups from Burlington to Honfleur and vice versa. Those visits, of which the most recent was one of Honfleur residents to Burlington in October 2022, are intended to occur annually (after pandemic delays) in alternation. Lise emphasized that the formulation of individual projects depends on initiations by groups from one or the other city, and that her role as chair of the Sister City committee is to facilitate the arrangements in the host city. Judging from the enthusiasm of the Honfleur visitors last October, it is expected that these organized visits will continue regularly, although individuals can always fly to the other city once connections are established.
Finally, Lise repeatedly highlighted the role that the AFLCR has in promoting these international francophone relationships. She was on its board of directors from 2009 to 2021 and continues to be an enthusiastic supporter of both the AFLCR and the Alliance Française in general.
Erik Trinkaus