Transition'Eure

THE ASSOCIATION

Once upon a time, two friends from the same small village in Normandy met far from home, where they were building a community garden with other Normans. One winter day in 2018, the first friend said to the second:

"It's a bit of a shame to travel so many kilometers to participate in this garden. Why not create our own association in our village?"

The second friend immediately agreed, noting that ecological transition couldn't be limited to gardening. They discussed it with their acquaintances, and in the spring of 2019, the association Petite Transition’Eure was born, aiming to raise awareness about the climate emergency and the impending ecological transition. Soon, others joined them: a bio hairdresser, an expert in ancient materials, a homeopath, an organic market gardener, a zero waste specialist, teachers, enthusiasts of living soil gardening, a mason, retirees, prevention specialists, amateur naturalists, landscapers, and more. For over two years, minus a few months of lockdown, they have been developing awareness-raising activities around three themes: gardening on living soil, consuming differently, and preserving biodiversity. They have initiated a beginner’s course on gardening on living soil, built insect hotels with schools or disadvantaged groups, conducted nesting box workshops, cooking workshops, and more. One day, they decided to think bigger and launch an initiative around bees to raise maximum awareness of the crisis we are facing (the climate crisis, not COVID!). The scientist in the group told them about a device that could help them meet this new challenge and told them this story…

THE PROJECT

… Once upon a time, there was a CNRS engineer, Sylvie Houte, who made two observations. First, biodiversity loss was accelerating on the planet, and second, people were becoming more distant from nature and passive in the face of an impending catastrophe. To address this, she created the Mon village espace de biodiversité initiative in 2012, intended for implementation in any willing commune. Transition’Eure joined the initiative. They decided to establish a communal apiary with three hives and develop surrounding educational activities and events for the community's classes and its inhabitants. And all of this had to be done with local actors.

So, the transitioners contacted people around them: beekeepers, farmers, teachers, the municipality, the community of communes, local associations, professionals, and more.

And together, starting from September 2021, they will:

Co-host a nesting box workshop coupled with a photographic exhibition and an educational forest walk (October 2021).

Co-host a compost workshop with the creation of compost bins and a scientific presentation on soil life (November 2021).

Plant flowering fallows in the commune (November 2021).

Co-host a bird feeder workshop and conference (January 2022).

Conduct various school activities (between February and June 2022).

Co-host a biodiversity in the garden workshop and make “seed bombs” (March 2022)

Install the communal apiary (April 2022).

Co-organize a night of the owl (May 2022).

Have children create a giant nature-themed ceramic mural (May 2022).

Co-organize a concert coupled with a photographic exhibition (June 2022).

Co-organize a music-accompanied foraging walk (Summer 2022).

And many more things too long to recount here.

The initiative aims to endure over time and be passed on to other communes starting in 2022.