PMB’s French Connection

This page provides information on the French Presence in PMB: La Route du Prince Impérial, Louis Napoléon.

FRENCH LESSONS
The Alliance Française offers French classes.

PROJECTS
The Napoleon Foundation donates 4 000 Euros (R54 696.32) towards the maintenance of the Allard House Chapel, Jabu Ndlovu St, Pietermaritzburg.

Allard House Chapel

The Allard House Chapel (known to many as St Mary’s Chapel – pictured below) and named after the first Bishop, John Francis Allard, was the first Catholic Church built in 1852 in KZN by the French missionary order of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate from Aix-en-Provence in France. For the 150th anniversary of the arrival of the Oblates, the chapel was restored and already for that occasion in 2002, through the appeal of the “French” project, the Napoléon Foundation in Paris donated R34 000.00. This sum matched the R34 000.00 that the “French” project had obtained from the, then, Ndlovu Regional Council.

This second donation by the Napoleon Foundation is in much need. For a closer look at the chapel, join us at the annual memorial mass for the Prince Impérial at 9:30 on Saturday 30 May 2015. The Prince had attended mass in the chapel in April 1879 on his way up to Zululand to join the Second Division during the Anglo-Zulu War. He met his untimely fate on 1 June 1879 at Uqweqwe and his mortal remains lay in state in the chapel on the night of 8 June 1879 before they were repatriated via Dundee, PMB, Durban, Cape Town, St Helena to England where the imperial family had lived in exile. The Prince now lies in the crypt of St Michael’s Abbey, Farnborough, with his father, Napoléon III and his mother, the Empress Eugénie.

The annual memorial mass for the Prince Imperial in the Allard House Chapel is said in liaison with the mass that is said for the Prince in the Imperial Chapel in Biarritz, France, where the Imperial family had an imperial domaine.

Unfortunately, the generous donation of the Napoleon Foundation is not enough to cover the full quote for all the repairs needed. The total quote provided is R323 400, so a further R268 704 is needed to complete the necessaries.

CONTACT INFORMATION
Glenn Flanagan
Public Relations Officer, Alliance Française, PMB
Cell phone: 082 677 9997
alliancefrancaise.pmb@gmail.com, gflanagan@webafrica.org.za
Project Leader: French Presence in KwaZulu-Natal: La Route du Prince Impérial, Louis Napoléon
NPO 080-140 Amis Siyakhula (Friends, we are growing together, Nos amis, nous avançons ensemble)