The 20 years medal :

       D'un diamètre de 7 cm, elle montrait au recto, l'effigie de François SPOERRY et au verso, une vue aérienne de PORT GRIMAUD.
       It was to be manufactured in a thousand copies, this medal was never distributed...

       It is true that the side showing an aerial view of the lake city was particularly false, very far from reality and therefore not very resembling with the streets represented much too rectilinear: Port Grimaud deserved a better presentation!
       François SPOERRY decided to destroy these medals that he considered not very successful...

       The 20th anniversary of the lake city was celebrated as planned, but nobody received the medal as a gift...

Jean Luc MARECHAL :

       It is to Jean Luc MARECHAL that we owe this medal. He explains himself very humbly on his website "https://10francsgenie.fr/" :
       "This medal did not see the light of day, and I regret it a little! Here is what I remember:
       In 1986, when I was still new to the engraving workshop, I received a request for a medal to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Port Grimaud, the work of the architect François Spoerry.
       The subject was pleasant, light, and did not appear to be a source of problems.
       I had received an abundance of documentation on the port, an innovative achievement that the architect had wanted. I made a first composition very wise, classic, and another, much more daring, in which I had completely turned the perspective upside down, to make the subject dance!
       François Spoerry chose this second project, to my great satisfaction. I only found my working drawings, but the projects presented to the client were in color and shaded...
       Equipped with my order form, I was about to start my work when the boss, Emile Rousseau, making his morning rounds in the workshop, saw my work and got stuck on it.
       — You are not going to do that!
       — Yes, Boss...
       — No, Maréchal !

       The debate was brief, and I was still too young in the workshop to dare to stand up to the boss. I never knew how this refusal had been communicated to the sponsor...
       With 34 years of hindsight, I don't deny my controversial project ! On the other hand, I wonder how I could have presented such a sadly composed portrait, and with such a horrible typography... But it is in its mistakes that we learn !

       PS : In 1986, we didn't have computers to help us in our work... and we were still working mainly in direct tailing !"

The different projects :

The 50 years medal :

       For the 50 years of the lake city, the "MONNAIE DE PARIS", national monetary institution of France, had a commemorative medal made by the "Fonderie Saint-Luc", "PORT-GRIMAUD - VENICE PROVENCALE 2016" of 34mm diameter, for a weight of 16 gr, in cupro-alu-nickel.