La Crosse Epinal Cultural Exchange
400 La Crosse Street
La Crosse, WI 54601
Tel:
Fax: 608.895.2630
Map It!
www.cityoflacrosse.org/index.asp?NID=567
The La Crosse-Epinal Twin or Sister City partnership began in 1986 when Philippe Sequin, then Mayor of Epinal, approached Daniel Hilger who was at that time head of Trane's manufacturing operation in Epinal, concerning an association between La Crosse and Epinal. The fact that La Crosse and Epinal were similar in size and had Trane facilities in each made La Crosse the natural choice. With Trane as the intermediary, the agreement was signed in May of 1986 by then Mayor Patrick Zielke.
Since then, there have been many different types of exchanges between La Crosse and Epinal including student exchanges between high school students, internship exchanges and choir and orchestra visits with UW-L and Epinal schools,business students from WTC, soccer teams, and annual delegations. Golf and bike exchanges are in the works.
2006 brought a celebration of 20 years of the sister city relationship with visiting delegations and various activities.including an exchange of sculptures representing our two cities. La Crosse sent the La Crosse Players and Epinal gave us "Le Pinau" , a representation of a small boy pulling a thorn out of his foot.
Epinal and La Crosse have much in common. Similar in size, they are also both located on rivers--Epinal on the Moselle. It is located in the Northeast part of France, in the Lorraine region and at the foot of the Vosges Mountains. Epinal is home to Trane's International Division-Europe/Mideast/Africa Group and has other major manufacturing facilities such as Garrett and Playtex of the U.S. Epinal has 4 technical schools, a law facility, many sports facilities and music and flower festivals. It is best known for its "Images". There is also a large American Cemetery just outside the city of Epinal. Both Mayor Patrick Zielke and Mayor Mark Johnsrud have laid wreaths during ceremonies when there for the 10th and 20th anniversaries.
Monthly meetings of the committee are the 1st Tuesday of the month at 4:30 p.m. at the 5th floor conference room at City Hall.