"Victor Home" lowers the curtain, a page turns ...

For Nadia Gleizes-Raya, a merchant in Carcassonne "for many decades", as she likes to say, the time is now retired.A shared feeling: "a touch of sadness", of course for the one who, for almost 30 years, has been intensely involved in Carcassonnaise shopping life.But, mother of two boys, "they are the ones who encouraged me to stop. I even think they are the ones who decided for me!", She recalls.

Visionary, Nadia was, without a doubt. "Very young, while I was studying in a big university city in Montpellier, I observed a turning point concerning the decoration: the first decoration shows arrived on television, I saw the rise of the first decorative magazines . I was young but I felt it, "she explains. 40 years ago, when she worked in the ALA house - a Carcassonnaise institution specializing in tableware and household equipment - she decided to bring her touch: decoration. "Then, in 2007, I really felt the desire to stand on my own two feet. So I had a first store in the city center. Then in 2011, again I needed to express myself more Fully in terms of decoration, my store became too small so I bought here, at 6 rue Victor Hugo. This is how Victor Home was born! ", She explains with passion. Here, she says, "the idea was to mix several universes": clothes, but also decorative objects of all kinds. "But again, when I was a student in Montpellier, the first concept stores arrived, it was also the case in Toulouse. So I said to myself why not in Carcassonne, in my city of heart."

Nadia's retirement marks the end of a case, of course, but it is by no means the end of a commitment which takes root 24 years ago."I have indeed, as early as 1998, wanted to get involved for businesses in the city center. There was a visibility problem on the one hand, but also a lack of communication on their actions. So I wanted toTo invest in the Union of Traders, which later became the Office of Commerce. I assured the presidency for three successive terms and we were initiative of numerous events allowing to energize the city center.I am thinking in particular of the Spanish week, created in connection with the city ".

Everything has not been easy she admits."In particular the file on the signage of the heart of the city".In the front row, behind the window of her city center shop, she remembers: "Tourists passed and did not know where the city or the museum was. There was a real need. So I say it loud and clear,We were at the initiative of this big file concerning signage ".And to add: "It is like the creation of an extra-municipal commission for local trade, validated during the last municipal council. We have been talking about it for more than 5 years. The new forms of cities managementPerhaps escape political elected officials, but we have a more economical vision. We met last year, with the former president of the CCI of Aude Jean Caizergues, the mayor Gérard Larrat and we had submitted himAlready this idea of commission! ", She says.

"But what I remember today is above all the immense joy of being able to tell me" I served to something ", she admits." I can say that I look soothed everythingBy having the feeling of having done its maximum, "she concludes. As for the local of rue Victor Hugo, Nadia prefers to give way to the suspense!