February 8, 2020 Story of Gobelin weaving by Ms Yuko Ushio

The committee held a lecture meeting with Ms Ushio as a lecturer, who is fascinated by the French Gobelin tapestry and made Goblin weaves by herself. The theme of her lecture was about the history and characteristics of Gobelin weaves and how they were introduced to Japan. Gobelin weaving is an elaborate and luxurious hand-woven tapestry which originated in Louis XIV era in the end of the 16th century. Goblin weaving was named after Goblin family who produced fine tapestry at their dye shop, later called Royal dye atelier. Goblin tapestry is designated only as genuine article when it was produced at Goblin family’s atelier.
Then it was imported to Japan and used in the floats of Gion Matsuri and the floats of Hikiyama festivals in various places in Japan.
We felt Ms Ushio’s love and compassion toward France and Goblin tapestry.

January 25, 2020 Lecture
“Life in France” by Mr. Koji Kitayama

On January 25, we organized a lecture at Zennikkei Hall attended by 30 participants.
Mr. Kitayama, our lecturer, spent 8 years in France, while working at the French Japanese Embassy and UNESCO, and had extraordinary experiences which most visitors could not have. During that time he could get in touch with the city of Issy.
First, he explained the differences between France and Japan in terms of area, population, latitude, and more. He also mentioned that according to recent abnormal weather, heavy rain caused the Seine River water level to rise and experienced summer days, as hot as 40 degrees Celsius. Furthermore, we were very surprised to know that France has 560,000 Judo population while Japan has only 160,000.
We were glad to see the presentation about "Japonismes 2018" which featured "Omikoshi" by Nakadai Mikosh of Ichikawa City .
After the lecture meeting, we went to the French restaurant "Lapin" for lunch. We enjoyed meals and talks under the French atmosphere.

The committee’s activities in the half of FY2018　

In the second half of FY2018, the most distinguished activities were "Samuel’s Fun French Lesson" which was held once a month / six times in total. Samuel Le Youdec is our teacher who instructed "French cuisine workshop galette & crepe" held in January this year. His teaching method is to use French only. But after the conversation, he teaches us what is it in French and how to write it in French using a black board. First, he asked us to introduce yourself and teached us how to describe our occupation. Then, he asked what did you do this month. As the answers are different each other and expose various things in life, we always enjoy to hear them. There are 10 to 15 students in the class among which there are someone who can almost understand French. I am participating at my own pace while asking for their help some time. Samuel introduced his home town Rennes and Brittany region by ipad . What a surprise, IIA members are soon going to visit there .

Lecture “A man on the move-France’s ambitious man, Emmanuel Macron”　

The lecture meeting was held at Zennikkei Hall on Jun.9 with lecturer Mr. Fumio Banno, former NHK’s commentator, international economy. The theme of the lecture was “French President Macron will save the Earth” in which he mentioned Macron will lead the world in a future. It seemed to be rather radical opinion for pro-American Japanese. Mr. Banno spoke out 2hours with his confidence and humor and more than 40 participants were so impressed that they could not believe he is mid-eighties. According to Mr. Banno, the appearance of Macron is miraculous and his political position is the middle grounder with the strong faith of “Syncretisme” that means no right, no left but blends the both and has best outcomes. Macron will try to strengthen Eruo money and renovate the system of EU parliament. His life are always devoted to his wife and family and eventually leads to the love of the earth.
Mr. Banno’s lecture was very informative and drastic and attracted much attention of the participants.

French cooking and cuisine

Garrett and Crepe cooking workshop was held on January 20 at Danjo Kyodo Sankaku Center with instructors Samuel Le Youdec and his wife Keiko Nishimura (Kako). Samuel is a French language class teacher and Kako is a famous interpreter and translator of French and appeared on TV program.They are Ichikawa citizens.
The recipe of Crepe is; mix flour and sugar and add lukewarm milk and eggs that makes a dough. Then bake a dough on the medium-heated pan and flambe with rhum as finisher. Eat with some fruit or chocolate as you wish.
The recipe of Garrett is; mix buckwheat flour, salt, water and eggs then keep them in refrigerator for 1 hour. The ingredients are bacon, shimeji(brown beech mushroom), cheese, tomato and more as you like.Bake a dough on the pan, drop the egg in the middle and wait until the edge becomes crispy then fold the four sides.
Attended 17 people enjoyed eating including IIA president Ms Narita and former secretary Ms Dazai. This was the 4th occasion and we believe it was a good opportunity for members to communicate each other.
Another occasion was dinner at restaurant "Lupine" on February 3, where we could enjoy a genuine French cuisine. The restaurant was locked for us, 20 people inculding our French language class teacher, Francois Lienard.
Good foods, pleasant conversation and good chanson music, we had a great fun.

The Committee’s Activities in 2017

Issy-Le-Moulineaux City committee has been active with continuation of French language courses and promotion of members friendship.
Mr. Lienard Francois has been our teacher of French language course for three years. This year we started to use Zennikkei Hall as a venue of our class where the members enjoyed learning at each level (5 times in total). And the tea and chatting time after the class was also fun.
In October, members gathering party was held at the restaurant in Motoyawata and participated 8 people including a new member had a good time with a lot of drink,food and fruitful discussion. We exchanged our opinion on the future activities, especially on citizen exchanges with Issy.

2017 Selected Seminar “French World Heritages”

French World Heritage Seminar" by the committee chairperson Mr.Junji Nozawa was held on January 21, 2017 at Yawata Shimin Danwashitsu. He gave a detailed explanation of 13 of the 42 French World Heritage sites, including “Prehistoric Sites and Decorated Caves of the Vezere Valley” famous for the Lascaux cave, “Chartres Cathedral “and “Paris, Banks of the Seine”. The seminar was informative and we shared a profitable time.

2017 French Language Course(5times a year program)

The committee’s regular French Language Course started again this year by the teacher, Mr. Lienard Francois.
We repeatedly pronounced the basic conversation following the teacher. And we compared the pronunciation on chanson with the French national singer Edith Piaf's "Hymne a L’amour" and Japanese singer Yoko Kishi .The teacher recommended us to get in touch with French (music) as many times as possible on the devises such as YouTube 

2016 Cooking Class Issy-Les-Moulineaux City Committee

On December 3, we invited Mr. Enrico Manzaro as a lecturer and cooked Italian pasta "Amatriciana" and Italian salad. The difference in taste seems to be determined by tomato sauce and pasta to use. One of the committee members prepared for the authentic tomato sauce and pasta. The teacher recommended to use the Japanese `Aji Pon,Yuzu taste’ for dressing. He also taught us how to make Carbonara. According to his recipe, we did not use fresh cream and the key of cooking was temperature of pasta when mixing with eggs same as making ‘Tamago Kake Gohan, row egg mixed rice.
I think food culture as well as music is the easier way to understand foreign countries.

Members Gathering “To know more what France is all about” 2016

On Feb.7, 2016, committee members got together and enjoyed talks, tea and snack.
Today we had Mr. Okada, experienced tour-conductor, who talked about history, culture,
interesting spots to visit and tips for travel in France. Also Ms Tsunoda of the Division of the International Relations, Ichikawa City, gave us up-to-date information with regard to
Japanese Garden in Issy from her recent visit to Issy-Les-Moulineaux.

French Language Class (6 time regular programs a year)

The committee held French Language Class regularly with Mr. Francois Lienard.
Mr. Lienard, a teacher of Wayo Women’s University as well as a company owner, has been living in Ichikawa for long time and loves the city with its convenient location, cheaper shopping, abundant nature and easy human communications.
It is a lot of fun to have his lesson as his method required us to repeat many times after
him to become accustomed to pronunciations.

French Cooking Workshop 2015

On Dec.5, 2015, we had a 2nd cooking class with Mr. Shadi Dubois. This time the menu was “fricassee” which is traditional French home cooking with stewed chicken, onions with fon de veau (French soup stock) and fresh cream. The key recipe was to cook with high heat otherwise the color and the thickness did not come out.
Although Mr. Dubois experienced the hard time to know the tragic accident by terrorists in Paris, he demonstrated his cooking performances with his naturally cheerful character,
singing and dancing with chanson. We were relieved and enjoyed.

French cooking workshop

On February 7, we had a workshop of French cooking named the quiche Lorraine (Lorraine region of) which is the most popular house cooking in France.
17 members attended and our teacher, Mr. Shady who is a French language school teacher gave us how to cook an authentic handmade quiche.
He said that first, mix diced not-cold butter and flour by your fingertips until ingredients are reduced to smooth and silky sand, and we all followed him earnestly what he had demonstrated. Many attendants agreed that the cooking the Quiche was easy but the dishes looked so fancy and fine. It was good to hear that everyone enjoyed and satisfied this workshop.
You can download the recipe note

2014 World Heritages in France

The lecture “World Heritages in France” was held on March 8 by Mr. Nozawa, the lecturer, the Meister of the World Heritage Academy and our committee's chairman.
There are 38 World Heritages in France which are consist of 34 cultural heritages, 3 natural heritages and 1 mixed heritage. He introduced several heritages among them and each one of them were equally so impressive. There would be a lot of fun if we could stay Issy-Les-Moulineaux for long time and visit those heritages.

2014 French Language Class

Our committee organizes the French Language Class regularly and the 3rd class was held on January 25. The teacher was Ms. Takada who belongs to Issy-Les-Moulineaux City Committee as well as Interpretation and Translation Committee. We learned daily conversation such as greetings, introducing ourselves, asking something to others and so on. Also we learned names of a lot of things. It was fun to follow French pronunciation and listen to an authentic French pronunciation.

2013 Visit the Embassy of French Republic (La France au Japon)

Members of Issy-Les-Moulneaux City Committee together with other committees members visited the Embassy of French Republic at Minami Azabu on December 6.
The building of the Embassy was modern and beautiful with its blue-green glass appentice and stone walled structure. The autumn colors still remained on woods surrounding the building.
We were guided to the lecture room which decorated beautifully with impressive design.
The embassy counselor taught us about France as land, people, economy, art and others in his authentic French and we all enjoyed this opportunity.

2013 The official delegation and citizen group from Issy-Les-Moulineaux visited Ichikawa

In July 2013, the official delegation and citizen group from Issy-Les-Moulineaux, France visited Ichikawa city. They visited various places in and out of the city and attended the farewell party sponsored by IIA. At the party they appeared in Yukata(summer cotton kimono) and had experience to know Japanese traditional culture such as tea ceremony, calligraphy, Origami(paper folding), Kendama(may be referred as ring and pin) and dressing a 12-layered ceremonial kimono. We hope that they enjoyed Ichikawa and Japan and are confident our mutual relationships were more deepen.

2012 The official delegation and citizen group from Ichikawa visited Issy-Les-Moulineaux

In October 2012, the official delegation and citizen group visited Issy-Les-Moulineaux in time for attending the official signing ceremony of the partner-city relationship.
The citizen group attended the official ceremony and the following cocktail party and visited several places in the city such as Trump Museum(playing card museum) and wine storage facility located at the area where deserved topography effect on wine storage. They also attended t he official dinner party hosted by mayor, Mr. Santini which remained in our memory for long time.

2012 The signing ceremony of Partner City Agreement

On October 22, 2012. the official signing on the treaty which activated the relationship of the Partner City between Ichikawa City and Issy-Les-Moulineaux City took place in Issy-Les-Moulineaux city. The ceremony was held at the City Council with the distinguish guests, the ambassador of Japan, first secretary of the embassy of Japan, general manager of the Council of Local Authorities for International Relations(CLAIR) Paris office, president of the Maison de la Culture du Japon in Paris(MCJP) and citizens of the both cities.
The treaty was signed by Ichikawa Mayor Mr. Okubo and Issy-Les-Moulineaux Deputy Mayor on behalf of Mayor Mr. Santini.
The treaty said that the both cities seek to extend the amicable relationship by visiting and hosting civil and youth goodwill groups in terms of ICT, greening the town programs, arts and culture.
Issy-Les-Moulineaux committee will seek to conduct the international exchange activities which Ichikawa citizens can join as many as possible.