(New Orléans, Louisiana—January 2, 2024)— The New Orleans Rotary Fund, Inc., in partnership with the Krewe de Jeanne d’Arc will host a historic 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, for ten days 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 January 3-9, 2024. This is the first time in the 594 years of the Orléans, France, Fetes des Jeanne d’Arc history that Orléans is officially sending their Jeanne d’Arc to New Orleans.
January 6, 2024, the 612th birthday of Joan of Arc and Twelfth Night, also marks the sixth anniversary of the New Orleans/Orléans twinning, signed on January 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 2023 Orléans, France, Jeanne d’Arc, 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 Thursday January 4, 4:30 p.m., with a special ceremony at Gallier Hall. Krewe de Jeanne d’Arc members are invited to this reception.
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.
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 January 6, 2024, sixteenth annual Joan of Arc Parade. For more information on the parade and the honorary characters, including Ms. Marsalis, visit Honorary Characters.
Ms. Marsalis will travel to Orleans, France, in summer 2024, representing the Joan of Arc Parade and New Orleans, via the New Orleans Rotary Fund, Inc. scholarship.
The Rotary Club of New Orleans formed a Sister City Club with the Rotary Club of Orléans in 2021 and the Rotary Fund Joan of Arc scholarship was launched in 2022, with the first scholarship rewarded in 2023 to the 2023 Maid of Honor Emmeline Meyer, who traveled to Orléans in July 2023. The goal of this new scholarship is for the New Orleans “Joan of Arc” to meet the Orléans, France, “Jeanne d’Arc”, to experience and learn the history and culture of Orléans, and to build friendships and cultural understanding.
Local New Orleans area young women between the ages of 16-19 years old selected for the Joan of Arc Parade Maid of Honor role must first apply through the Joan of Arc Project, prove their leadership abilities and charitable accomplishments, convey an understanding of Joan of Arc’s story and significance; appreciate and express the importance of New Orleans’ French heritage; and speak French.
Final contestants selected by the committee to represent Joan of Arc are interviewed in English by the Joan of Arc Parade president and founder Amy Kirk Duvoisin, and then in French by the Consulate General of France’s cultural attaché, Jacques Baran. The selected Maid of Honor portrays Joan of Arc in the annual January 6th parade in New Orleans and reigns as Joan of Arc for the year. Since 2023, the Maid of Honor has been awarded the additional honor of representing New Orleans with a visit to Orléans, France, funded by The New Orleans Rotary Fund, Inc.