Château de Blérancourt Award
Villa Albertine, New York, Oct. 26, 2026
All grown-ups were once children—although few of them remember it.
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince
Words and books, knowledge and stories, concepts and ideas are pathways to independence, freedom and impact. Anne Morgan understood this better than most.
When the daughter of J.P. Morgan, founder of the eponymous financial institution, sailed across the Atlantic to a devastated France in the midst of World War I, she became a modern Lafayette. She fought the enemy by helping the French heal their wounds, rebuild their homes, relaunch their farms and open their books again.
The American women who volunteered alongside Anne Morgan had to be educated as well. They were expected to pay their own way to France. They had to speak French. And they had to know how to drive, at a time when the automobile was still new.
Anne Morgan and her army of volunteers turned ambulances into mobile libraries and drove them to isolated villages to bring books to children. Their work transformed French libraries. For the first time, children could browse and borrow books freely from open shelves.
A century later, the battle has changed. Short videos now set the rhythm of our days and strike at the very heart of how we learn. Marianne Verbuyt, known as Yayane, resists with force, determination and a method that empowers learners of every age.
She does not simply teach. She creates the conditions for people to free themselves from the fear that they cannot learn or succeed. Philosophy, mathematics, literature, French. And above all, the confidence to find their own voice.
Yayane is a contemporary Anne Morgan. A fighter, armed with grace, beauty and words. She teaches in New York and raises funds for schools in Nepal, a world away, with United World Schools USA.
When she took the stage at the annual dinner of the American Friends of the Franco-American Museum of Blérancourt on Oct. 26 at Villa Albertine in New York to receive the Château de Blérancourt Award, a symbol of Franco-American dedication and excellence, she put it in her own words:
Some of my students were children in cancer wards. And I must tell you, there is nothing quite like watching a child become absorbed in learning when death is close. At a time when so much is uncertain, when life itself is fragile, like in war times, you might ask: “What is even the point?”
I asked myself that question. And these children taught me the answer: The point is freedom.
Yayane
Her friend Ion Yadigaroglu, co-founder of Capricorn Investment Group, presented her with the trophy, with a twist.
“Yayane has devoted much of her life to educating children. I’ve come to think this is a rather unfortunate use of her talents,” Ion Yadigaroglu said. “Children are curious. They ask questions. They can change their minds. Occasionally, they even listen.”
“The people who really need Yayane are adults,” he added.
“I meet them all the time. Some are remarkably successful. Some have considerable power. And quite a few would benefit enormously from being sent back to school.
Imagine if, before being entrusted with a company or a country, one had to spend six months with Yayane. A little history, literature, philosophy, and the unsettling discovery that having a strong opinion is not the same as knowing something.”
Yayane answered with a speech to read and share, with children and adults alike.
Here are her words. I wish you could also hear her silences, the pauses between her phrases.
(more pictures of the evening at the end of the post)
Acceptance Speech by Marianne Verbuyt,
a.k.a. Yayane
Cher Mohamed Bouabdallah,
Cher Franck Laverdin,
Chère Dorothea de la Houssaye
And Ion, thank you so much for your kind words.
I am deeply honored to receive this award. And, frankly, a little surprised! Because I am not a public figure. I am someone who works in the shadows.
I think of Anne Morgan, an American in France in the final year of the First World War. Farms burned. Towns destroyed. So much to repair, so much to heal. So much to rebuild. As a philanthropist, an educator, a parent, where do you even begin?
Anne knew where to start. She filled the back of a Ford truck with children’s books. She created mobile libraries that brought stories to towns where people had lost everything. American volunteers from high society learned French and found countless ways to help, especially by organizing story hours for young children.
It is this human connection that links me to Anne Morgan and to these extraordinary American women. My sisters.
Why my sisters?
I don’t want to recount my entire career, but before I came to New York, I lived in Paris, where I, too, worked out of a Ford car. Not with a library, but with a car packed full of books that I carried from student to student — from the projects to a Haussmann-era apartment.
I worked for Votre École Chez Vous, an organization that helps children who cannot attend school because of illness.
Some of my students were children in cancer wards. And I must tell you, there is nothing quite like watching a child become absorbed in learning when death is close. At a time when so much is uncertain, when life itself is fragile, like in war times, you might ask: “What is even the point?”
I asked myself that question. And these children taught me the answer: The point is freedom.
Because even when so much is beyond your control, the mind can still explore. Curiosity can still open doors. You can still discover something new. You can still be fully alive in the moment.
They were my students. But they were also my teachers. They taught me what education is really for.
For more than a decade in New York, I have continued to travel from school to apartment, from family to family — no longer in a Ford, but on a bicycle. And, yes, in an Uber from time to time. I am not in my thirties anymore!
I teach. And here is what I want you to understand: culture changes the way we think.
Learning a new language is about so much more than translation. It is about learning to think differently, to feel differently, and ultimately, to see the world differently.
When I teach French to Americans, I find myself constantly moving between two cultures, observing their differences and discovering what each has to offer the other. When French and American cultures meet, we give each other something extraordinary: the opportunity to see the world through a different lens.
And that, to me, is the true gift of friendship: to welcome another person as they are, to see the world through their eyes, and, in doing so, to expand our own horizons.
This work of love lies at the heart of my advisory work with the French American Academy, L’Alliance New York and other schools across America. I would like to thank them tonight, too.
Every day, I hear from clients who are worried about AI. It is changing everything, and people are afraid. Once again, we find ourselves overwhelmed, asking the same questions: Where do we begin? What matters most? What do our children need to learn to flourish in the century ahead? “What is even the point?”
I believe that, more than ever, we must understand ourselves and our history. And more than ever, we must learn to be friends.
Educators will need to educate with love. And I don’t mean bullshit love. Sorry — I can’t put it any other way. I promise I will never swear in front of the children!
But you know what I mean. I mean the love of Victor Hugo, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, John Steinbeck. A love that sees children for who they truly are. That makes room for all their fears, their questions, their curiosity, and their potential.
Because children do not need us to decide who they should become. They need us to create the conditions in which they can discover who they are.
This, I believe, is the key.
And it is not only true for children. I teach people of all ages. Because the need to learn, to connect, and to understand one another is universal.
I am deeply honored to receive this recognition in the spirit of Anne Morgan’s legacy.
Marianne “Yayane” Verbuyt
Château de Blérancourt Award 2026
All pictures (c) Annie Watt for American Friends of Blérancourt except Featured image (c) JC Agid
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