Center d'études francoprovençales "René Willien"
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The Center d'études francoprovençales “René Willien” (CEFP) is a cultural institution in the Italian Aosta Valley .
The organization, founded in 1967 by the photographer, writer and language activist René Willien (1916–1979), advocates the maintenance and preservation of the Valdostan dialect of Franco-Provençal and promotes linguistic research on the entire Franco-Provencal language area. The institute is located in the municipality of Saint-Nicolas .
The CEFP works with institutions and universities in various countries, in particular with the Bureau régional pour l'ethnologie et la linguistique (BREL) in Aosta ; it participates in linguistic and cultural studies research projects and holds its own scientific colloquium every year.
It organizes the Concours Cerlogne for poetry, theater and music, founded in 1963 , in which works in the Franco-Provencal patois are awarded. The name of the event refers to the dialect poet and dialectologist Jean-Baptiste Cerlogne (1826–1910) from Saint-Nicolas.
After the death of René Willien in 1979, the historian and dialectologist Alexis Bétemps headed the institute for 30 years.
Federica Diémoz , a Romance studies scholar from the Aosta Valley, was Vice President of the Research Center until her death in 2019.
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Coordinates: 45 ° 43 ′ 1.3 " N , 7 ° 9 ′ 52.1" E