Home The Journal How to Join Newsletter Conferences Study Day Exhibitions Awards Discussion Board Links From the ploughs of yesterday to the agricultural techniques of today Exhibit at Châteaubriant and Colloquium 25-28 October 2006 The Departement of Loire-Atlantique and its Cultural Affairs Section have decided to highlight the work done collecting old tillage implements over the last decades by some dozen small museums and associations in the departement. In order to do this, we have organized an attractive exhibit entitled “Of ploughs and of people” in the castle of Chateaubriant. It opened in July of 2005 and will continue until the end of November, 2006, a time period that enables us to supplement it with various activities. All the local groups of the Chateaubriant region, brought together in three communities of local authorities, as well as many tourist, historical and cultural associations, several sections of the University of Nantes and, of course, the Cultural Affairs Section of the Departement, Region and Nation are participating in valorization of this initiative. From the event entitled “Ploughs in the street” to a cinema festival and organization of an international colloquium “Techniques de travail de la terre, hier et aujourd’hui, ici et la-bas” (Techniques of tilling the soil, yesterday and today, here and there) proposed by the Centre international de culture paysanne et rurale (CICPR The International Center of Farming and Country Culture), the headquarters of which is in the Chateaubriant region. This colloquium, under the scientific guidance of Francois Sigaut, has the support of the Association d’Histoire des Sociétés Rurales and the AFMA (Association française des musées d’agriculture et du patrimoine). It is also working in cooperation with the EARTH (Early agricultural remnants and technical heritage) international network, as well as with several associations interested by rural development in developing countries. Hence the colloquium has had international aims from the very beginning. It will be held in the Nantes region from noon Wednesday 25th to Saturday, 28th October, 2006. After a general opening session in Nantes in the Meeting Hall of the Conseil General of the Departement, the participants will be invited to adjourn to the field the next morning in Nozay. There they will be able to see demonstrations of ploughing as practiced in the region. The colloquium will continue the following day with a visit to the exhibit in Châteaubriant and will conclude on Saturday with a program of complementary visits. You can consult the call for papers, the preliminary program, an extensive preparatory dossier on “labours en sillons” (ridge ploughing) and all pratical information you might need on the website of the Centre international de culture paysanne et rurale (CICPR), hosted by the University of Nantes, at the following address: http://palissy.humana.univ-nantes.fr/labos/CICPR . You may also request information by mail from the Secretariat of the Colloquium at this address: René Bourrigaud – Chemin de la Roche – 44860 Saint-Aignan-de-Grandlieu or by telephone at 33 (0)2 40 31 09 25. E-mail: rbourrig@club-internet.fr