DUT CELEBRATING THE FRENCH PRESENCE IN KZN

The Durban University of Technology’s (DUT) Cultural Tourism Research Development Project, the French Presence in KwaZulu Natal: La Route du Prince Impérial, Louis Napoléon, will be celebrating its 14th Anniversary this year.

The first function will take place at the Prince Imperial Rose Garden on DUT’s Riverside Campus in Pietermaritzburg on Friday, 14 March 2008, starting at 10:05.

This year marks the 4th anniversary of the PRINCE IMPERIAL Rose Garden. On his paternal side (2008 is the bicentenary of the Prince’s father, Napoleon III), the Prince Imperial’s grandmother, Queen Hortense, was a great horticulturist. She had followed in the horticultural footsteps of her mother, the Empress Josephine, first wife of Napoleon I. Both the Empress Josephine and her daughter, Queen Hortense, were known for promoting the rose culture in Europe. The Empress Josephine was particularly famous for her patronage of the Natural Sciences.

Our own DUT Prince Imperial Rose Garden, inaugurated in 2004 on 16 March (the Prince Imperial’s birthday), by the Comtesse M.A. de Colbert, the then President of the Alliance Française, Durban, was the protégé of Tom, Lee and Florence McKune. The Rose Garden has brought immeasurable pleasure to all members of our DUT community and visitors who pass this way.

The tradition is that on the 16 March, or a day close to it, the Riverside Staff, visitors and students gather at the Prince Imperial Rose Garden, to the tune of Graeme Turnbull’s Scottish bagpipes. The students sing La Marseillaise and then set to making crêpes.

This celebration is one of the features of our internationally renowned cultural tourism research development project.

For more information contact Ms Glenn Flanagan, DUT Senior French Lecturer, and Project Leader on the following numbers:

Office: 033 845 8860/ 033 845 8800
Home: 033 342 45 99
Cell: 082 677 9997
E-mail: glennf@dut.ac.za
www.princeimperial.co.za