The small group that Madeleine Buffet gathered around her in 1996 became a formal association on 11 December 1996, and appeared in the official journal published on 1st January 1997 under the title "Les Amis de Marie Le Franc" (The Friends of Marie Le Franc).

The purpose of the Association is to "promote the awareness and study of the character and work of writer Marie Le Franc, a native of the Pays de Rhuys and winner of the 1927 prix Femina". As the Association's first president, Madeleine Buffet initiated the task of studying and reappropriating Marie Le Franc’s entire body of work.

The Association has now been in existence for 25 years, during which its work has continued uninterrupted; ambitious, open to partnerships and to the public and supported by groups with similar areas of interest and more motivational events.

It has around a hundred members from all over France, but mainly from municipalities in Rhuys and Brittany.

The Marie Le Franc Association operates under the aegis of a board of directors:

Board: Colette Bocher and Marie-Claire Raoul, co-chairs
             Claudine Allaire, secretary
             René Bosser, treasurer


Members:  Jessie Adam, Bertrand Blanc, Janou Boulier, Fernande Borius, Jacques-André Ledan, Jonathan Mandelbaum, Rosine Réveillé