Starlit villages award.

[ollypenrice]

Regular visitors to France will have noticed that some towns have a sign saying 'Ville Fleurie' (Flowery town) as you enter. They earn this title by meeting a certain level of floweriness!

A few years ago I went to a meeting in Sisteron where the local Tourist Offices were proposing an equivalent but for starry villages. To earn the title villages would have to turn off their lights, avoid bad lighting design, etc.

Well, this week, out cycling, I realized that this has actually happend because there was a sign coming into a village; Village Etoilé. Brilliant. The initiative is not nationwide but the Pays du Buesch region, where I live in the Hautes Alpes, has realized that the excellent skies here are marketable (as indeed they are) and should be preserved (as indeed they should.)

I think this is good!

Olly

[Knight of Clear Skies]

Good to hear. More people are recognising the night sky as a precious resource, and the problems and waste that light pollution causes.

[DaveS]

Good to hear, perhaps an idea we should import.

I sometimes think that in addition to the usual EPC house sellers should declare their Bortle Number (To keep it simple), with lower numbers getting preferential valuations.

Perhaps then there would be less clamour for more streetlights!

[RichM63]

It is national Ollie, just a bit new on the scene. We are 5* 'floweriness' Petite Cité de Charactère but have not apparently submitted to this 'stariness' concours at this time.

I'll give the M le Maire a bit of a push.

I see that an award such as this could be a real boost to winter tourism.

Attached is the pdf of the initiative listing the current holders, conditions etc. (in French)

Cheers,

Rich

Villages Etoilés 20140127201208_ig0ogf_doc104.pdf

[DaveS]

Well, we have a "Britain in Bloom" competition, how about a "Stary Skies" one as well?