What do a washing machine, contact lenses or a lawn mower have in common? These three inventions, which are now part of everyday life, were all presented for the first time at the Lépine competition.
Created at the beginning of the 20e century for “fight against the crisis which then affected the small Parisian manufacturers of toys and hardware”, this competition-exhibition has become a true institution over the decades. One hundred and twenty-three years later, inventors from all walks of life flock there to present their latest creation. The 2024 edition is currently being played at the Paris Fair, until May 12, 2024.
Prefect in Châteauroux
The relationship with Indre is due to its initiator, Louis Lépine. A few years before creating this event, the latter visited Châteauroux, where he held the position of prefect for a year. His name is still displayed in the prefecture, in the list of 101 prefects passed in Indre.
Appointed on January 19, 1885, Louis Lépine took on this role for the first time. He arrived from the sub-prefecture of Fontainebleau. In My memories, autobiographical work published in 1929, he says he learned of his appointment between two doors, while he was passing Place Beauvau “for I don’t know what business”.
Louis Lépine appears among the names of the prefects displayed in the Indre prefecture.
© (Photo NR)
A wolf crossed in the prefecture park
The Castelroussin episode of his career takes up two pages. It describes a country “which is not picturesque”, with the exception of Brenne, “this soggy earth” from where rises “in the setting sun, in summer, a diaphanous amber vapor” with some “mirage effects that make you dream of the Orient”, and this “another oasis, the Black Valley, complacently described by George Sand”.
From Châteauroux, he retained Château Raoul, where his offices were located.As for the prefecture, “it was an ordinary building which would leave me no memories if my second daughter had not been born there”. He nevertheless remembers the vast adjoining park where he says he“encountered a wolf” one night.
The former prefect does not have very fond memories of his relations with the Indians. “The majority of society was hostile to us. They were the most rogue bourgeoisie I have ever met.” he still writes in his Memories, qualifying the Berry mayors “apathetic and timid” Who “don’t dare take anything on [eux] » And “always have something to ask of the government. »
