L'INFORMATEUR
Your Local Newspaper
Eu-Le Treport-Mers-Region Petit-Caux et Vimeu
May 18 2000
They
Are Visitors
Over 200 descendants of the de Saint Leger family spent the weekend
in the town of Eu. After a church
service at the collegiale, the passage de
Saint Leger connecting the Plaza Saint
Laurent O'Toole to the Plaza William
the Conqueror was inaugurated.
834 years ago, an army of some 2000 men, with at their helm valiant
Norman knights and their allies, were assembled by the Channel, from Eu to Saint
Valery sur Somme with, as their leader, the Duke of Normandy who was later-on
dubbed William the Conqueror.
Addicted to history, the mayor of the town of Eu, Francois Gouet, was delighted to reminisce in the "Salle du Carrosse" ("Hall of
the Carriage") of the chateau of Eu,
this historic fact to the attentive ears of
Bernard de Saint Leger, of the
Countess of Paris, and the President
of the Friends of the Old Eu, Madame
Vasseur.
The Saint Legers left the
region a long time ago and they did not parody this faraway era even if an atavism might be perceived,
especially during the game of sioule
(this ancestor of rugby and football). They promised not to wait another
thousand years in order to meet again.
It is thanks to the Internet that this bet, attempted by Dominique de Saint Leger, did
materialize. On Sunday, they arrived from the Parisian region, from the Rhone,
the Alps, and also from Argentina, Canada, New Zealand, and South Africa. Jeremy
Lawrence, who lives in Capetown, confided that his great grandfather
founded the first Daily newspaper for which he is a correspondent in this
country bordered by the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. One of the Saint Legers works with the BBC in
London and promised to mention the family reunion on the British broadcasting
station.
In the morning, introductions were the order of the day. A first
meeting had taken place a few years ago in Ireland and on May 13, the town of
Eu was chosen because of its ideal location between London and Paris, close to Saint Leger-sur-Bresle but especially
of Saint Leger aux Bois, above Foucamont, a commune in which lived a
few hundred years ago, a branch of the Saint
Leger family and which deserves the detour , with its tower of Mailly and
its bell which is inclined like the Tower of Pisa.
At the end of the morning of this Saturday, May 13, 2000, a large group
of persons was at the passage de Saint
Leger for the inauguration of this walkway.
Robert de Saint Leger, a faithful
companion to William the Conqueror
and a member of the family knew Saint
Laurent O'Toole as a monk in the Abbey of Eu.
Addressing the family in his homely, Father Mesnay, reminded the
persons present: "We should attempt
to be like Saint Leger" Perfect in
charity, of irreproachable fidelity, wise in humility: three objectives
which constitute quite a program of achievement.