Archives : Évènements

Are you a new mom or dad and looking to meet other English-speaking parents in the area? The BYOB (Bring Your Own Baby) group is a way for families with young children to connect and chat about anything and everything related to the journey into parenthood. This group is for English-speaking parents with a baby (or babies!) under 3 years old so be sure to bring them along! Bilingual and multilingual families are welcome, too. The group will meet one Saturday a month from 4:15-5:15pm in the Kids Corner of the library.

This activity is free for library members. For more information or to sign up, please contact the group leader.

The library is sorry to inform you that this activity has been cancelled until further notice.

Welcome to “Write Here, Write Now!”, a new activity!

Writing and sharing: join this series of workshops for people who love to write in English and don’t mind sharing what they’ve written (although this sharing is not mandatory). Springboard exercises by themes, genres, characters, time, space, imagination, real facts, even extending to other art forms will help you get your creative juices flowing…all in the company of lovers of literature. Mathieu Huvelin, a library volunteer, will delicately guide you through different ways to stimulate your writing, keep you inspired and help you get to know the writer within yourself.

“You can make anything by writing” (C.S. Lewis). Following Lewis’s invitation, let’s explore boundlessness: the world at large as well as your own secret gardens through words…while discovering the unknown realms of the writing of others.

Workshops will be run Wednesday evenings from 6 to 8 pm at the library from mid-September to mid-June on a bi-monthly basis, except during school holidays. They are free for library members (maximum of 10 participants). For more information and/or to sign up, please contact the group leader.

Meet Nicole Guyon at the library on Thursday 24 June any time between 4:00 and 6:00 pm. She’ll be delighted to share about her art with you! Her exhibition, “Diversity of Nature” will be from June 24 to July 10, 2021. The exhibition is free and open to the public.

Nicole Guyon has been painting for 25 years. She often exhibits her artwork and participates in many painting contests. She has won several prizes in Maine-et-Loire and beyond. She is very enthusiastic to have been awarded two prizes by the French Pastellists Society in Paris. During the International Pastels Exhibition in Limoges, she was selected among the best pastellist students. She was also chosen among more than one thousand European candidates to participate in the final European Pastel Congress Competition in Paris.  She has worked with master pastellists such as Alberto, Richard Heitz and Peter Thomas.

Nicole loves to play with colors and shapes to create her paintings. She draws her inspiration from nature, beauty and various “ambiances”. She enjoys working with pastel for its purity and intense colors and, with watercolor, for its lightness. Even if her figurative style seems to be in contradiction with contemporary abstract painting, this artistic style reflects who she is. She strongly feels that she owes it to herself and to the public to be faithful to her authenticity.

The sensations that paintings create fascinate Nicole. She is amazed by the light that illuminates people’s heart as well as by the hope and love they bring to their soul. Painting is also a wonderful way of escaping. It is a therapy essential to her everyday life. She agrees with the saying “if art doesn’t cure, art is a therapy that contributes to a better life”.

The library is honored to have a keynote speaker for a last of our series of talks for the program “Think Big, Think Green”: Kate Snipes. Kate works for the Foreign Agricultural Service at the US Embassy in Paris and will be talking about new US initiatives in agriculture to address climate change and sustainability.

This will be a 40-minute talk followed by a question-and-answer session. This talk is free and open to the public and will be accessible by Zoom. Click here for Zoom link. We will be letting people into the Zoom session starting at 9:45.

“Thing Big, Think Green” has an exciting project for the library to focus on creating a trans-Atlantic discussion about sustainability. The program has included Zoom meetings between students, workshops, tours of farms, keynote speakers and a pertinent selection of books. The hopes were to create a forum to support an exchange on how we can make our food consumption more sustainable, healthier and more respectful of the planet Earth. “Think Big, Thing Green” is a timely opportunity for the library’s community to engage in discussion about the future! This program has been made possible with the support of the Embassy of the United States of America, France.

The English-language Library is thrilled to be able to offer their traditional Open House and fundraiser to be held on Saturday, May 29^th from 10-6 non-stop. This is a fun day to come and see the library and discover the many programs available to members. Note that twice a year the library has a big booksale (books donated or weeded from the collection) so come and buy your stock of second-hand books in English…hundreds and hundreds are on sale! This is the total win-win situation, not only do you get books at great prices but you also support the library…two birds with one stone! The cherry on the cake? Well, there will be a bake sale with delicious homemade goodies, a plant sale (mostly seedlings of vegetables but other plants as well) offered by the library’s Garden Club AND…a tombola with baskets of wonderful items to win! Note the date! Hope to see you for this special event…

In the month of May, the library will be celebrating along with other institutions and non-profits “Angers fête l’Europe” with a number of different events occuring in Angers including this talk offered by Eve Davis, Wigan’s ambassador to Angers about Angers’ sister city, Wigan.

The image of Wigan, one of Angers twin towns, is often linked to George Orwells celebrated work “The Road to Wigan Pier”, which describes the living conditions of the working class in the north of England during the 1930’s. However since then, much has changed; come and discover the transformation of this town through the exciting story presented by Eve Davis, Wigan’s ambassador in Angers.

This event will be held on Zoom (Zoom link here). If you would prefer to come into the library, we will be projecting this event on a big screen…live! This talk is free and open to the public.

If you would like to do some homework before the event click here to access some pertinent quotes from George Orwell’s “The Road to Wigan Pier”.

For a full listing of “Angers fête l’Europe” events go to this link.

The question is…will you have the winning raffle ticket?

Here is another fun fundraiser for the library…come and buy your raffle tickets in order to win different baskets of lovely items donated to the library. You can buy your tickets anytime between May 21st and BBB and Open House day, May 29th during the hours open to the public! Drawing will be done on Saturday, May 29th at 5 pm.

The Textile Art & Craft Group and Marie-Paule Muller, leader of the group, have the pleasure to showcase their creations at the library from May 5 to June 22, 2021. Here is a sample from one of their projects.  We invite you to come and  discover their delicate work! If you would like to join the group, who meet once a month, don’t hesitate to contact the Front Desk at info@ellia.org.