“My niece lives in Valencia, I was very scared”: the concern of the Charentais after the floods in Spain

Conchita Pragout-Guitierriez knows her friends well. She regularly flies from Bordeaux to visit Maria-Elisa who lives in Las Palmeras. “Torrent, this suburb of Valencia, I know it well, I recognized many of the devastated landscapes that I saw on TV. It hurts my heart so much to see this. »

So of course she is delighted that an initiative is being organized in Charente to send donations. “I’m going to sort through what I have, I’m going to donate sheets, t-shirts, pots and pans too… Everything I can. And money too. I don’t have many, but I’ll give some away. There, some people have lost everything. »

“The entire Spanish community of Charente is moved by all these terrible images,” confides Gregorio Lazaro, the president of the association of Spaniards of Charente. “Many contact me to find out if something was being organized in Charente to help, if I had contacts there or to send clothes, food… So the initiative of Romaric Lavoute, who is a member of our association, comes at the right time, we are going to relay it as much as possible.”

Their Erasmus canceled

Like around ten other young people from the Amandier vocational high school, Baptiste Torriani, 16, from Saint-Yrieix, a professional cooking baccalaureate student, was to go to do an Erasmus in Valence. “The departure was planned for October 31 for six weeks,” he says. Everything was planned, our internships in restaurants in Valencia to discover Spanish gastronomy and the culture of the country in general, to speak Spanish too. And host families were ready to welcome us into their homes.” But the day before departure, their teachers told them that the trip was canceled. “The families who were to welcome us or the restaurants were not necessarily impacted, but the school does not have the right to send students to an area affected by a natural disaster. Which is normal,” agrees Baptiste, even if he is, like his comrades, very disappointed. “I remain in touch with the family who was to welcome me. I ask them for news, but they are in the center of Valencia and have not had any damage.”