NATCHITOCHES – Mayor Lee Posey presented a Key to the City to visitors from La Rochelle, France, at City Hall on Thursday, June 6. Philippe Reymond, Jany Reymond, and Bernard Leycuras traveled from the west coast of France to visit the oldest permanent settlement in the Louisiana Purchase as a sign of good will and solidarity.
Through the use of a translator, the three stated that they wished to bless the city of Natchitoches and to connect with Huguenot (French protestant) descendants here in Louisiana. Philippe and Jany Reymond are overseers of the Association of American French Huguenot Descendants (AAFHD) ministry, and Bernard Leycuras leads Objectif France, a French national prayer organization.
Bernard Leycuras gave Mayor Posey a copy of Royal Genealogy de France, a book detailing the history of France. Philippe and Jany Reymond also presented Mayor Posey with a French flag and photographs of La Rochelle, a city that also has ties to Natchitoches.
La Rochelle is a port city located on the Bay of Biscay on France's west coast. The city is the birthplace of Claude Pierre Thomas Metoyer, who with Marie Therese Coincoin, had ten Franco-African children that became the founding family of the Isle Breville Creole community of Cane River.
Courtesy: Samantha Bonnette, City of Natchitoches