Culture, sport, youth
Some word associations really make sense. Sport, culture and youth are a perfect illustration of this, as these notions are strongly linked together. That’s true but they are not exclusive to each other. We play sports and art at any age. But youth is a time of passion, exaltation and exuberance which leads to exploits, creativity and self-transcendence. In fact during the Olympic and Paralympic games the athletes give us the best example.
Yonne’s playground welcome all sportsmen : professionals and amateurs, young and old, early bird and night owl. In teams or individually, in competition or just for pleasure, Yonne’s facilities are the places where we achieve personal or shared exploits. We run there, we jump there, we go above and beyond to feel alive, to stay in shape, for our health and well-being.
In Yonne, museums, libraries, conservatories and theatres allow to arouse everyone’s curiosity and express their creativity. As regards music, cinema, literature, Yonne welcomes all artists and gives all young people the means to explore their imaginations, to seek inspiration in themselves.
Sport and culture provide youth with the experiences and knowledge they need to thrive and socialize. Indeed, youth is the time for learning and developing critical thinking.
In Yonne, youth is the age of all achievements and Yonne is the place where everything is possible.
Sidonie Gabrielle Colette was born in Saint-Sauveur-en-Puisaye on January 28, 1873. She was the daughter of Captain Jules Colette and Sido, who raised her with a very free and nonconformist education. At the age of 20, she married Henry Gauthier-Villars, aka Willy, a great figure in Parisian life who suggested that she wrote her memories of primary school. The book was published in 1900 under the title Claudine at school and under the sole signature of Willy.
Colette, who had never felt a vocation, gradually became aware that she was a writer. She decided to perform in the open. In 1906, she left the marital home. Driven by necessity as much as passion, she embarked on music hall. She met with an immense success where scandals sometimes have their share. Because she refused to wear the traditional flesh-colored jersey that must give the illusion of nudity.
Mime, writer, she was also a reporter. She covered boxing matches, stages of the Tour de France, balloon flights… On 19 December 1912, she married Baron Henry de Jouvenel, a brilliant journalist with a promising political future.
On July 3, 1913, she gave birth to her only child, a daughter named Colette. During the war, she continued to write, not novels but articles, as waell as a hundred reports on life in the back.
She published her most famous books in the 1920s: Chéri, La Maison de Claudine, Le Blé en herbe, Sido. In 1925, she met her last companion, Maurice Goudeket. In 1932, she opened a beauty store and made-up her own by appointment. Unfortunate attempts that will discourage volunteers. After a year, she had to close her shop.
In 1939, she suffered from arthritis of the hip which gradually condemned her to immobility. She wrote shor stories, observation books, evocations of the past, and she remained the woman of all the first times until her last breath : first woman president of Goncourt Academy, first woman to receive the medal of Grand officier de la Légion d’honneur. And last but not least, the first woman to receive a national funeral.
“Land of Talent”
Yonne is proud of its flag-bearers, Bérangère SCHUH, world champion and team bronze medallist at the Olympic Games in archery, Cyrille CARRE, world champion in canoe-kayak, Fabrice MEUNIER, Vice world champion and silver medalist at the Paralympic Games in archery, who contribute to our territory influence and are an eternal source of inspiration for Yonne inhabitants.
“Lands of Value”
Yonne’s athletes and volunteers are committed to a sustainable sport that promotes solidarity between amateur and professional sports, but also to encourage all aspects related to employment, volunteerism and disability.
“Land of thrills”
Yonne offers an idyllic playground for sports and leisure in nature: climbing the rock of Saussois, model-making and hot air ballooning, mountain biking in Morvan, cycling on the 120 kilometers of bicycle route along the canals, canoeing on the Cure and Yonne rivers, or the trail in the 4,870 hectares of the Chablis vineyard.
“Land of passions and emotions”
Yonne is the body behind the AJA in the mythical stadium of Abbé-Deschamps, behind the Rugby Club Auxerrois at Pierre Bouillot stadium, behind the archers of the Sentinelle in Brienon-sur-Armançon, behind the Olympic Canoe Kayak Auxerrois.
For all the above Yonne is definitely a land of success.
The Zervos Museum in Vézelay was inaugurated in 2006. A modest museum, located in the house of Romain Rolland, it hosts an important collection of 20th-century works: Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró, Alexandre Calder, Vassily Kandinsky, Fernand Léger. Built from the Zervos legacy and complemented by a rich acquisition policy led by the Conseil départemental of Yonne, this ensemble is today one of the few modern art collections of Burgundy.
Publishers of the magazine Cahiers d’Art in Paris, in 1937, Christian and Yvonne Zervos bought a house at Goulotte – a small hamlet perched on the commune of Vézelay. Their friends – painters, poets, sculptors, architects –, have sometimes stayed there like Pablo Picasso who stayed during a getaway to Vézelay in spring 1938.
In 1970, after the death of his wife, Christian Zervos decided to leave their property to the city of Vézelay. This is why the public can now discover major works of modern art in the very heart of the medieval city.
For more than fifteen years now, every year, the Zervos Museum has been renewing its collections and presenting important exhibitions to the public: Hartung, Calder, Miró, Picasso and Kandinsky. Thanks to its important collection, this Musée de France collaborates in France and abroad with the largest museums: Musée national d’art moderne – Centre Pompidou (Paris), Musée Benaki (Athens), Musée national Picasso – Paris, …