Blérancourt Honors Laetitia de Cayeux and Yayane Verbuyt
/On Oct. 26, the American Friends of the Franco-American Museum of Blérancourt honored two women in the presence of Mohamed Bouabdallah, France’s cultural counselor to the United States and director of Villa Albertine. Two very different paths, one shared ambition: pushing new frontiers.
Laetitia de Cayeux, a Franco-American frontier-technology entrepreneur and investor, received the 2026 Anne Morgan Women of Courage Award. Marianne Verbuyt, known to everyone as Yayane, an educator who teaches in New York and raises funds for a school in Nepal with United World Schools USA, received the Château de Blérancourt Award, a symbol of Franco-American dedication and excellence.
One looks to the moon and Mars. The other looks into the eyes of a child wrestling with a sentence. Both spoke of the same thing: what we owe children, what we choose to make possible, and the conviction that education lies at the core of a country’s future.
Model, dietitian and author Maye Musk and Capricorn co-founder Ion Yadigaroglu presented the awards to de Cayeux and Verbuyt, respectively, beneath the newly unveiled ceiling artwork of Villa Albertine’s ballroom at the Payne Whitney Mansion.
Introducing Yadigaroglu, American Friends of Blérancourt Chairman Franck Laverdin reminded guests that Anne Morgan, the daughter of J.P. Morgan, went to Blérancourt, a small village 90 minutes north of Paris, during World War I not only to care for the wounded population but also to help people rebuild their lives.
“Anne Morgan and her team understood the power of innovation,” Laverdin said. “They turned ambulances into mobile libraries, bringing books to children in isolated villages. And they transformed French libraries with open shelves, so that children could browse and discover books freely, for the very first time.”
Verbuyt’s own work echoes Morgan’s. “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?’” she said.
The answer, she added: freedom.
“The people who really need Yayane are adults,” Yadigaroglu said in his remarks. “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.”
Before inviting Musk to introduce de Cayeux, American Friends of Blérancourt President Dorothea de La Houssaye also stressed the power of education. She spoke of meeting Villa Albertine’s 2026 Lafayette Fellows, a program supported by American Friends of Blérancourt. “They are the leaders and innovators of tomorrow. And tonight we celebrate a woman who already is one: Laetitia de Cayeux.”
“What I find really inspiring about Laetitia is her determination to pursue ideas that others might consider impossible,” Musk told the audience. “She works to make them real. And that takes courage.”
“Courage lives in each of us,” de Cayeux said in her acceptance speech. “But the permission to dream is something we build together.”
Turning vision into reality also takes knowledge, and a memory of where we come from. As de La Houssaye put it, “When Anne Morgan gave the château to France, she did so for one purpose: so that we would never forget the history of Lafayette and Rochambeau, of the Declaration of Independence, and of the Déclaration des Droits de l’Homme et du Citoyen, drafted by Lafayette with Jefferson at his side, which echoes the very words of the American text.”
The evening’s co-chairs were Jamie Gérard, an American Friends of Blérancourt board member, and his wife, Emanuela; Carole and Philippe Delouvrier; Karl Rozak; and Alexander and Ashley von Perfall, Ion Yadigaroglu and artist Inma Barrero. Board member Sonja Tremont Morgan, Julia Englander, Anne-Sophie Mignaux Kamar, Alfred Lasher, Rula and David Lutfi, Marco Maranghello, Vérane de Marffy, Alexandra and Alexander Morris, Larry Peters, Assia Rozé, Hunt Slonem, and Bonnie and Steven Stern were among the evening’s patrons. Veronica Bulgari and Stephan Haimo, Helena Skarstedt, Jean-Martin and Christine de Wendel, Marcela and Pedro Gonzalez de Cosio, Fugees co-founder Jerry “Wonda” Duplessis, Omer Tuncata and Nefise Savrun, Elizabeth Kabler, Silda Wall Spitzer, Mario Kranjac, Sophie Raubiet and Jean-Charles Tréhan also attended.
Guests left with gifts, including a signed copy of Musk’s new memoir, “Timeless.”
Turning to Bouabdallah, de La Houssaye announced that American Friends of Blérancourt would renew its support. “We did so in 2026, and we will do so again in 2027.”
