NEW ORLEANS (press release) – The New Orleans Rotary Fund, Inc., in partnership with the Krewe de Jeanne d’Arc will host a special visit by representatives from the City of Orléans, France, for one week in January 2024, to coincide with the 16th annual Joan of Arc Parade. The New Orleans Rotary Fund, Inc., (NORFI), awarded the Krewe de Jeanne d’Arc 2023 Maid of Honor a cultural scholarship to visit Orléans, France, in the summer of 2023. This inaugural scholarship is being reciprocated by the Orléans, France, Rotary Club, and the City of Orléans, who in turn are sending their 2023 Jeanne d’Arc to New Orleans from Jan. 3-9, 2024.
Jan. 6, the 612th birthday of Joan of Arc and Twelfth Night, also marks the sixth anniversary of the New Orleans/Orléans twinning, signed on Jan. 6, 2018, at the beginning of New Orleans’ tricentennial year. At that time, then-Mayor Olivier Carre of Orléans, France, and then New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu signed the agreement at New Orleans City Hall. Afterward, a contingent of representatives from the city of Orléans, France, walked in the Joan of Arc Parade. This year, the Orléans, France, Jeanne d’Arc 2023, Ms. Clairvie Quesne, will travel to New Orleans with an entourage to participate in the Joan of Arc Parade with Rotarians from New Orleans and experience other notable sights and sounds of Louisiana.
During her stay in New Orleans, Ms. Quesne will stay in the homes of local Rotarians and experience New Orleans French, Catholic, and other historic institutions, including St. Louis Cathedral, The Historic New Orleans Collection, Steamboat Natchez, Vue New Orleans, L’Union Francaise, Laura Plantation, and The National WW II Museum. During her stay, she will participate in various Krewe de Jeanne d’Arc activities, culminating in walking in the Joan of Arc Parade on January 6, 2024, in the French Quarter. She will be officially welcomed by the City of New Orleans on January 4 with a special ceremony at Gallier Hall.
Ms. Quesne will be accompanied by her two pages, Maximilien de Rochefort and Théophile Joinneaux, from the May 8, 2023, Fetes des Jeanne D’Arc Parade in Orléans, France, as well as Madame Benedicte Baranger, President of the Orléans Jeanne d’Arc Association, who herself portrayed Jeanne d’Arc in 1975 and her husband.
On most of her local visits throughout New Orleans, Ms. Quesne will be accompanied by the local 2024 Maid of Honor Marley Marsalis, portraying Joan of Arc in the Jan. 6, sixteenth annual Joan of Arc Parade. For more information on the parade and the honorary characters, including Ms. Marsalis, visit Honorary Characters – Krewe de Jeanne d’ArcKrewe de Jeanne d’Arc (joanofarcparade.org).
Ms. Marsalis will travel to Orleans, France, in summer 2024, representing the Joan of Arc Parade and New Orleans.
