In the program of the festivities of this beginning of summer, the municipal commission of the festivals had slipped a convivial evening with the festival of the neighbors. An initiative that resembled what we used to see a few years ago with the neighborhood meal, but this time it was really with close neighbors. For a first, it was a great success as in the neighborhoods outside the city center, especially in the north. Ernest Lopes deputy mayor in charge of entertainment and parties explains: “For the first time that we organized these evenings, it did not go badly. A lot of neighborhoods made the meal of the neighbors, many played the game This was often done like a Spanish inn, each of the guests wore something. This made it possible to have a real sharing between the inhabitants and even to discover one’s neighbors whom one does not always have the opportunity to rub shoulders with. close. There were even people we had never seen and we were able to talk in the greatest conviviality. We really have to continue these evenings, because it allows us to meet and talk, with the Covid we had kinda got out of the habit.” The rain unfortunately came, it may have cooled some who wanted to set up a small evening but who did not have the possibility of organizing an aperitif or a meal under cover. In some neighborhoods, the solution was quickly found, underlines the deputy mayor: “a lot of people had planned this and they had their meal at home, at their home with their closest neighbors who know each other well. did in a shed or in garages, often we found a solution.” For the city center it was really more complicated. “Contrary to popular belief, it didn’t work well, we realize that we have to win back the heart of the city with people who want to volunteer to organize because in the northern district, it’s the person who was to the initiative that organized everything.” It was a first, we can think that the mobilization will be more important during the next editions with the presence of a milder weather.
