Yesterday, Youth4planet team-members pedaled their bicycles and took public transportation from Ville de Luxembourg to Äerdschëff in Redange-sur-Attert. We followed the baby-breath of summer across the Vëlosummer trails . . . a patchwork of quiet lanes, heritage markers, and orchard-full valleys where signs read “excepté vélo – frei fir de Vëlo.”
What awaited at the end of the ride was more than a destination. Äerdschëff is a philosophy in action. Past the front gate, a plaque commemorates:
An dankbarer Erënnerung un de CAMILLE GIRA (1958–2018)
“Wie vill lasskappt, muss och vill schëppen.”
Camille was more than a statesman. He was Luxembourg’s ecological soul. A mayor, cyclist, and Staatssekretär who believed that doing less harm wasn’t enough: we had to do more good. Äerdschëff exists because Camille dared to ask: What if a building could teach us to be better ancestors.
My journey began at rue des Glacis. By my bicycle-computer’s data, I climbed 800+ meters. At one point, I passed a sign reading “Mat Respekt an Heeflechkeet – MERCI!”
It felt like a whisper from Camille himself. I will never know if Camille read Marshall McLuhan by candle-light . . . but I can imagine he did so. This self-evident truth . . . from renowned Canadian philosopher Marshall McLuhan . . . kept resonating: “There are no passengers on Spaceship Earth. We are all crew.”
To the young people who show up every Mardi au Jardin… to the craftspeople embedding upcycled glass into living walls… to the teachers, technicians, and teenagers re-imagining what learning means . . . Thank YOU.
To the memory of Camille Gira . . . may your courage echo in every timber beam, garden row and Active Mobility muscle-memory.
To Joerg, the Äerdschëff crew, and our Youth4planet family . . . you make every path joyful.
Visit Äerdschëff. Pick a strawberry. Plant a tree. Listen to the wind bounce off a solar panel and ask yourself: what does the future deserve from me to be a good ancestor?
We are all crew.
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RTLToday tribute to Camille Gira: https://today.rtl.lu/news/luxembourg/a/1181873.html
Paperjam tribute to Camille Gira: https://paperjam.lu/article/news-lheritage-politique-de-camille-gira
