An open day to mark 100 years since the closure of the Lartigue Listowel & Ballybunnion Monorailway will take place on Sunday from 11am to 4pm.
A twinning between Listowel and Panissieres in France began in 1988 on the 100th anniversary of the Lartigue Monorailway.
The twinning was initiated as Listowel and Panissieres are the only locations in the world which boast a Lartigue monorailway. One of the early objectives of the twinning was to have a museum or reconstruction of the monorailway developed in both towns.
Listowel achieved the unique Lartigue Museum and full-size running train, while in Panissieres, they built a full-size replica of their train which is on display in the Town Square. Panissieres also preserved the Lartigue monorailway route between the town of Feur and Panissieres, which is now a very popular 25km greenway walk.
A delegation from Listowel visited Panissieres in recent days in the hopes of reviving the twinning which has suffered due to Covid and a reduction in flights to Lyon, the nearest airport.
This twinning commenced in 1990 after the Launch of Michael Guerin’s book The Lartigue Listowel and Ballybunnion Monorailway, in 1988 when we celebrated the centenary opening of the railway.
Michael and Aine Guerin visited Panissieres in 1990 and had a meeting with Madame Francoise Vellion, Mayor of Panissieres and others, arising from this an official twinning charter was signed in 1992, between both Town Council, by Madame Vellion and Michael Guerin Chairman of Listowel Town Council. The Family town twinning thrived until the Covid period & flight problems.
The delegation from Listowel Panissieres Twinning Committee were Michael and Aine Guerin, and Karen Trench.
