Montauban. For its solemn session, the Academy closes the water cycle

Its president, Robert d’Artois, recalled the results of the past year: “Our academy is lively, dynamic, in terms of sessions and attendance, i.e. 11 sessions bringing together 1,100 people. Today we are completing the cycle on water In 2025, we have chosen the French language as a theme. I am from the twist generation and not from the tweet, we must take the time to converse, exchange, argue, demonstrate, in short. absolute opposite of the terse, peremptory, devastating, vindictive, comminatory, murderous tweet, especially since the tweet (translation of the tweet) has become X… As Camus says, misnaming things adds to the woes of the world. Speech is the mark of human specificity and that gives it an intellectual function which structures the Universe, it is above all an encounter… Certain regimes do not hesitate to break speech, I cannot say that today without have a thought for Boualem Sansal, imprisoned by the Algerian authorities to gag him”.

Marie-Claude Berly, mayor of Montauban, congratulated the academicians for their work, as a preamble to her intervention. “I will also talk to you about water, from sacredness to management, water so simple in appearance and infinitely complex in its meanings and uses. Both a source of life and a destructive force, it embodies this duality which gives us fascinates and challenges us From the dawn of humanity, it has established itself as the primary condition of our existence, the foundation of life…”.

In the second part, and still at the conclusion of the cycle of conferences around the theme of water, Maurice Petit, Florence Viguier-Dutheil, Jean-Marc Andrieu, full members of the Academy, accompanied on the piano by Marie Condamin, presented it brilliantly evoked from the angle of its artistic representations, whether literary, pictorial or even musical. The public enjoyed this walk along the water in a land of poetry, melodies and painted scenes. A rich, harmonious and educational moment particularly appreciated.

An appointment has already been made in 2025 for the first conference of the year, on January 6 at 3 p.m., Philippe Bécade, full member, will speak to us about “The discovery of blood circulation: twenty centuries of wandering”.