Recently, Bridgend Town Twinning sent a delegation of 10 representatives to our twin town of Villenave d’Ornon in Bordeaux. These representatives consisted of Town Twinning members and also a few Town Council members including the current mayor of Bridgend, Councillor Rob Morgan.
The objective of the visit was to showcase Bridgend and South Wales in a large Forum where many local organisations eg. Sporting, crafts, painting, dance etc. displayed their interests. There were many local people who stopped to take leaflets from us and were eager to talk about possible visits to Wales or the opportunity to correspond with French learner groups. All in all it was a successful day, well attended, with lots of interested people.
While in France the delegates had the opportunity to meet formally with the Villenave Town Twinning Committee and their mayor Patrick Pujol at the Hotel de Ville. The meeting was very constructive and several important points were discussed and agreed upon. The French committee were looking forward to welcoming students from two Secondary Schools in Bridgend in the next few weeks. These students will be hosted by French families and the purpose of their visit would be to improve their French language skills and experience French culture. Dates were also arranged for a return visit from French students to Bridgend in April 2017.
Discussions were also held regarding the visit of “Dawnswyr Penybont” who will fly out as part of celebrations there for St. Patrick’s Day in March 2017. Cor Tabernacl, Bridgend also find themselves being invited to Villenave as part of a European Musical Festival in June 2017. It should prove to be an exciting opportunity for the choir as there will be six European countries participating in this event.
We all enjoyed meeting up with old friends and experiencing, yet again, what Town Twinning should rightly represent – friendships between nations and sharing of educational, cultural and retail links. If you would be interested in joining us we meet in Carnegie House, Bridgend each month and dates of our meetings can be found on our website – bridgendtowntwinning.co.uk or by contacting our secretary Mrs Madeleine Walters on walters.sunnyside@btopenworld.com.
We are always looking for new members to bring new ideas to our organisation.
