The relics of Saint Therese, a mysterious blue balloon, cheap mutual insurance… the essential news in the region

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The relics of Saint Therese

#MENDE – The four nuns of the Carmelite nuns of Mende, in Lozère, will welcome from October 26 to 31, 2024, the relics of Saint Therese of the Child Jesus, a Carmelite during her lifetime. The Carmelite chapel will be open to the public every day until 6:30 p.m. The four Carmelites are waiting to receive « their little sister ». In 1996, the Mende nuns had already welcomed the relics of the saint. “Couples have confided to us that they are no longer the same as before and have told us that they have smelled a sweet odor”, confide the sisters.

Today's figure: 2,800

#MILLAU –This is the number of Millau owners affected by the legal obligation to clear brush, which consists of reducing the mass of vegetation in a 50 m zone around homes located less than 200 m from wooded areas. Objective: reduce the risk of fires spreading. The only municipality among the 91 concerned in Aveyron to have an OLD referent, Millau is a pioneer. Courtesy checks will be organized, others could be sanctioned with fines for offenders.

A mysterious blue balloon lands in Hérault

#UNUSUAL –Hot air balloon, weather balloon or weather balloon ? Since October 11, speculation has been rife on social media after images of a blue balloon landing in Liausson were published. Xavier Vergnes, a winegrower on the banks of the Salagou, went to the landing site: “There were two people on board, I spoke to them, a team had arrived to join them.” Present is Vincent Farret D’Astiès, founder of Zephalto, a company whose name is written on the balloon's gondola, which plans to transport passengers into the stratosphere. They are multiplying test flights from Le Pouget, the original epicenter of Zephalto's activity. As for the balloon that landed on October 11, the company states: “Zephalto has accomplished a set of scientific missions during a manned test flight.”In 2025, Zephalto plans to pepolyerize a capsule intended for commercial flights.

The City of Montpellier launches a mutual insurance company

#SOCIAL – "Around 25% of Montpellier residents do not have supplementary social security coverage", summarizes the mayor of Montpellier, Michaël Delafosse, who had included this municipal mutual insurance project in his 2020 electoral program. A call for tenders was therefore launched and the Mutuelle Familiale made the best offer. From January 1, 2025, 305,000 people – residents and students of Montpellier and Clapiers, Murviel, Le Crès, Sussargues and Saint-Geniès-des-Mourgues – will be able to benefit from this mutual insurance. Four levels of coverage will be offered. All will include the “zero out-of-pocket” system for optics, dental and hearing. “For equivalent service, prices will be 20% cheaper than the market”, declares Mickaël Delafosse. These rates will be frozen for two years to avoid the windfall effect. “When we set up the local health contract with the ARS in 2022, we realized that 68% of people gave up on getting treatment”, notes elected health official Elodie Brun Mandon.

Nîmes, city of Mistral

#HERITAGE – Friday, October 11 2024, in the town hall, the city of Nîmes will officially become “mistralian city”, in honor of Frédéric Mistral, the first writer to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature for his work in a regional language in 1904. But what is the link between Nîmes and the Félibrige, founded by Mistral and his friends on May 21, 1854 to defend the Occitan language ? In Nîmes, this culture is maintained by the Félibrige society La Tour Magne, by the Institute of Occitan Studies which holds a summer university in Nîmes. Mistral's personal history is also linked to Nîmes when he gave his first public reading of his poem in the Occitan language Mirèio (Mireille).