Saturday, December 21, 2013

Back in Luxembourg **

Fresh off their trip to China, Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume and Hereditary Grand Duchess Stéphanie were out and about in Luxembourg, the city that is, today. The visit was part of their tour of the Grand Duchy's fifteen Centres de Développement et d'Attraction (CDA) that already led them to Mersch, Vianden, Echternach, Redange, Dudelange, Esch-sur-Alzette and Clervaux during the course of this year.
Photo: Romain Schanck / Luxemburger Wort / Wort.lu
At about half past one, the Hereditary Grand Duke and the Hereditary Grand Duchess walked the short way from the palais to the town hall in Place Guillaume II where they were welcomed by the again mayor Lydie Polfer. She first became mayor of the city in 1981 at the age of 29 and served until 1999. After Xavier Bettel became prime minister earlier this month, Madame Polfer was sworn in as Luxembourg's new mayor on the 17th of this month. At the town hall both Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume and Hereditary Grand Duchess Stéphanie signed the golden book.

Photo: Romain Schanck / LW / Wort.lu
Afterwards they visited the Refuge Péitrusshaus, a shelter for minors. Founded by the Solidarité Jeunes and opened last year, the shelter offers help to teenagers between the ages of 12 and 18 in crisis situations. The organisation works 24 hours, seven days a week, 365 days a year and is equipped with 12 beds where the teenagers can unbureaucratically stay for up to five days. The Refuge Péitrusshaus also offers counselling.

The Hereditary Grand Duke and the Hereditary Grand Duchess subsequently made their way to Beggen, a quarter in the northern part of the city, where they visited the Cent Buttek, a low-cost grocery store. The products of the shop are donated by bakeries, supermarkets, small shops and businesses and redistributed to people in financial needs who pay according to their own means.

Photo: Romain Schanck / LW / Wort.lu
Their tour continued with a reception hosted at the Grand Théâtre de la Ville de Luxembourg in honour of volunteers working for all kinds of charitable humanitarian organisations in the Grand Duchy. To round off their visit to the city of Luxembourg, Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume and Hereditary Grand Duchess Stéphanie then visited the Christmas market at Place de la Constitution around one of Luxembourg's most famous landmarks, the Gëlle Fra.

My guess is that this was the Hereditary Grand Ducal Couple's last engagement of the year. Guillaume and Stéphanie will be spending Christmas Eve with the Grand Ducal Family in Luxembourg  and then make their way to Belgium on the 25th to spend time with the Lannoy family.

Pictures of the day are available at Wort in German, Wort in French, Wort in Portuguese, Wort in English, L'essentiel, Tageblatt, Manuel Dias and the website of the cour. RTL has a video which includes an interview with the Hereditary Grand Duke.

For those interested, the Hereditary Grand Duchess wore a repeated Diane von Fürstenberg dress and the same earrings that she wore on the day of her civil wedding for the event at the Grand Théâtre. If the Grand Ducal Family doesn't own multiple sets of the same earring, they have also been worn by Grand Duchess Maria-Teresa and Princess Alexandra since.


Sources: RTL, Wort, Wort, Ville de Luxembourg

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