Rather than distributing its “cabbage leaf” in Arbreloise mailboxes, as it did for two years, the team of the satirical newspaper decided to continue on Facebook®.
Talking about what is happening in the Pays de L’Arbresle with a touch of humor and a little mockery. This is what prompted several men and women*, all in their forties, to publish a monthly “cabbage leaf”, called La Pigette, distributed “randomly” in the mailboxes of L’Arbresle. An A4 folded in three, designed and printed by them.
“We wanted to bring a little humor to this city.”
The adventure began in 2020, during the municipal elections. “Part of the team moved to L’Arbresle in 2019, and nothing was happening. We wanted to bring a little humor to this pretty town…”, explain the main editors whose initials are B, F and A. For two and a half years, the key issues of L’Arbresle (bypass, hospital, etc.) as well as the political life of the territory or the little things of everyday life were ridiculed by the La Pigette team. Before stopping in 2022. “At the beginning, we got into the game thinking that the town hall would play along. Which was not the case,” they continue. Even if we did not receive a horse’s head in our bed, the elected officials did not appreciate our publications. And then, nothing much was happening in L’Arbresle anymore and it was difficult to expand. We were all volunteers. We wrote, printed, and distributed everything ourselves; it was a lot of work for little return.
“We have one or two moles at the town hall”
But the temptation was stronger and the editors thought about another format, another time frame… “But the project is not yet defined, they emphasize. We wanted to wait for the return of La Pigette in paper format or another, but some of the news is too funny or too absurd. We couldn’t help ourselves…”.
So it is on Facebook® that the team now posts. As for their inspirations, their information to regularly feed their page, they come mainly from meetings at markets, “hearsay”. “We also follow the news through local newspapers, Facebook® pages, they explain. We also have one or two moles at the town hall but we can’t say more.”
For this new school year, the forty-somethings are thinking of expanding to other towns in the area, “even if we don’t have enough information; we should go to the markets.” In the meantime, they are going to talk about commerce in the city center. “We’re not going to attract people by closing the city,” they believe. “We need to communicate. Talk about the shops, the bars… Even the incredible number of opticians! What the town hall should do, first of all, is not tear down posters from private windows. If all the shops are closing, it’s because there is a deeper problem…”
The relocation of the community of communes is also a news item that La Pigette will of course not fail to report. “Moreover, it seems that the elected officials will have private jacuzzis in the new premises,” they conclude.
