What they said about Peyresq…

• Bill Felstiner*, Research Professor at the University of Wales, Cardiff :

“… It reminds me of how much I and the group are in your debt. Our July meeting in Peyresq was the best yet, in many ways beyond the intellectual content. …”

(10 September 2000)

*President of several meetings in Peyresq on “Working Group on the Comparative Study of Legal Professions

• Hugues Beeseau, Department of Communications, Rhône-Alpes Regional Tourism Committee :

“… I wonder if the region realizes how blessed it is to have such a gem of intellect, renaissance and life at Peyresq?”

(Lyons – 22 June 2002)

• Lyman Page, Department of Physics, Princenton University, Princenton NJ :

“… Thank you for putting together a wonderful conference. It was the most fulfilling one I have been to in years. The talks, company, setting, food and excursions were all a joy to be able to take part of.”

(Peyresq – Cosmology, 30 June 2003)

• Yvon Georgelin, Astronomer – Marseilles Observatory :

“… Your website (www.peiresc.org) is a big success, and has been instrumental in putting me in contact with some very interesting people, and even with colleague astrophysicists in Nice and Paris at the time of Mercury’s last transit of the Sun….”

(Marseilles, 3 October 2003)

• Wolfgang Cramer, Department of Global Change and Natural Systems, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research :

“… I have to confess that I fell in love with Peyresq and that I have become truly convinced that you and the foundation are achieving something very remarkable there. Perhaps you can understand what I mean when I say that these two weeks in September have been the best two weeks of my working life so far. I have never seen about 50 people work so hard and so well at the same time – and enjoy their lives (which is of course a prerequisite for the work).”

(7 October 2003)

• Didier Ferrier, Professor of Law at the Universities of Montpellier and Paris :

“… Many, many thanks for your kind and warm welcome, not to mention the excellence of the exchanges which you organized and supported. I see why my father was so unstinting in his praise for the vigour and relevance of your Peyresq venture …”…”

(Conference “About Peiresc the Humanist”, 16 September 2004)

• Professor Edgar Gunzig, Professor of Physics at the Free University of Brussels, on the magic of the village of Peyresq :

“In recent years, Peyresq has become the extremely dynamic centre for a range of very high level international scientific meetings, not least the Cosmology and General Relativity symposia which have been held there each year for the past ten years. The proceedings of these symposia are published in an annual special edition of a top American journal and have been much of the reason for the international renown enjoyed by these meetings. A lot of highly-advanced scientific work has specifically come out of collaborative arrangements that originated in Peyresq.”

(4 April 2005)

• Professor Jean Lejoly of the Laboratory of Systematic Botany and Phytosociology at the Free University of Brussels, who has organized training courses in ecology :

“Peyresq, a place for extramural training,

Peyresq, the perfect place in which to immerse oneself,

Peyresq, the place of choice for working across disciplines,

Peyresq, place for the international dissemination of scientific knowledge,

Peyresq, a wonderful pedestrian place,

Peyresq, a prototype for glocalisation,

Peyresq, at the crossroads of change,

Peyresq, a place for observation and mountain walks… “

(L’Architecte et le Berger, 2004)

• Elisa Brune, scientific journalist  :

“… the extraordinary tale of what happened to a ruined village … who would have thought that Peyresq, a nearly deserted Alpine village in Haute-Provence would become the centre of intense intellectual activity of worldwide repute?

Peyresq’s prestige now goes far beyond the wildest dreams of the handful of ardent believers who were behind its reconstruction”.

(Ciel et Espace, June 2003)