When history and charitable actions come together… The Trojan Léopold Denis, enthusiast and collector, has reconstructed France with maps of the local service dating from the 19th century. He has been putting them on sale since October 21 on his website and part of the money raised will go to an association.
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For a very long time, Léopold had a project. That of reconstituting France with maps from the Vicinal Service dating from the 19th century. “Having finalized it, for me, is an achievement“, says the Trojan. In three days and 21 hours, sheet after sheet, Léopold Denis collected, on 200 m², 587 of these cards.
On the ground, he wants to recreate the image of France. “I allow a lot of people to remember their personal history. Because they will see in the maps, places in which they or their family lived, but it is also a common history. Because in the maps, we will see what happened in our history, as a country, but also as a human“, he explains.
After years of hunting through flea markets and antique dealers, this map enthusiast decided to put them up for sale on his website, for the benefit of the association Beyond Our Handicaps. An association which works for the social reintegration of injured soldiers and firefighters. “I didn't want it to remain a challenge closed only to people who are passionate about cartography and heritage. I wanted to expand it to everyone and share my passion for cards with other people.”
Léopold Denis took on the crazy challenge of reconstructing France with 587 maps dating from the 19th century.
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© Léopold Denis
Worth 45 euros each, 10 euros will be donated to the association. And to support those who save lives, content creators, now called influencers, remember: “By looking at the map, you almost live there, you can project yourself. In a hundred years, a lot has happened in the history of France. In particular, if you look at the Alsace-Lorraine region, there is not everything. Since at the time, she was no longer Frenchdetails Pierre Petit, also known by his influencer name @pierreptt. So it’s pretty cool to discover that..”
The opportunity for Pierre to observe the green of the forests or the blue of the waterways, a little closer. “The details are pretty crazy. There are even all the little paths. If you look, in my town, you can even see the houses. So it's quite surprising. In legends, we even saw peat bogs and marshes“, he continues, his eyes full of admiration. But the influencer must take on a major challenge: to bring it all out in photos, to share it with his community. “CIt's true that on the phone, it's not easy to render, but it's super interesting to see.”
The operation ends on November 15 and you too can buy your card. Already 1,000 euros have been collected and donated to the association.
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