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We were hosted in Neuville-de-Poitou by our
French twinners from 29th July to 5th August 2006. Thirty-seven members made
their way to France by road or air to stay with our twinning friends. We had
a warm welcome and an interesting programme had been arranged for the week.
DDTA was presented with a book about the Avanton area, which Ben accepted on
our behalf. On Sunday we had a guided tour around the newly restored
chateau at Avanton, led by Bernard Rabussier who, with his wife, was a
founder member of our twinning liaison and who became great friends with our
first president and his wife, Bernard and Kath Foster. Kath still keeps in
touch. We had an entertaining lunch accompanied by musicians, singers and
dancers from among the group.
The next day we had a guided tour in the medieval town of Parthenay and
almost managed to lose a few of our group! Lunch over and it was off to the
abbey museum at Airvault.
Tuesday included a trip to a museum showing the rise of Protestantism in
the area and on to an abbey at Celle-sur-Belle.
On Wednesday each French family chose where to take their visitors. David
and I went to see non-English speaking members of the Allard family in Couhe
(we had to raise our French conversation by several notches to include some
political and social issues- phew!). There are some interesting houses in
Couhe and a large, restored, covered market place, also lots of heavy rain
that day! Other people also visited relatives of their hosts and some set
off for the seaside.
Thursday was a long day trip to Saintes, a town with many Roman remains and
other historic buildings, followed by an interesting visit to a stone
quarry.
On Friday there were two local tours to the Cave and a labelling factory,
followed by the planting of a commemorative tree in the public garden in
Neuville and a toast by the Mayor. We were presented with an engraved mirror
to commemorate the event. The final dinner at Avanton was superb, speeches
were made by Ben and Erick and included one outlining the organisation of
the initial link written by Bernard Franck, the first person to organise
visits on the French side. This was a last chance to see everyone before
they went their separate ways on Saturday morning. Each family was presented
with a boxed silver engraved plate to mark our twentieth anniversary. |
