Devon Twinning Circle. Summer 2018 Devon Twin Circle Summer Devon Twinning Circle Officers and Committee Addresses

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1 Devon Twinning Circle Home to Home Summer 2018 Devon Twin Circle Summer 2018 Devon Twinning Circle Officers and Committee Addresses Chairman Mrs Pat Sherwood, Littleover Dean Street, Crediton, EX17 3EN Tel: Vice-Chairman: Mrs Josie Mardon, Heimat, 35, Woodwater Lane, Exeter, EX2 5JY,Tel: Imm.past Chairman. Mr. Dennis Knowles, 43, Greenway Gardens, Tiverton, EX 16 5JL Tel: Treasurer Mr. James Stewart, St. Mary s, Forches Cross, Bovey Road, Newton Abbot TQ12 6PU Tel: Insurance officer. Mrs. Pauline Knowles, 43, Greenway Gardens, Tiverton, EX16 5JL Tel: Newsletter Editor Mrs. Jean Aplin, 13, Crowden Crescent, Tiverton, Devon. EX16 4ET Tel: Committee Members Mr Philip Worsfold, 8B, Whitnage Road, Sampford Peverell, Tiverton EX16 7BU Tel: Mr. Maurice Mardon, Heimat, 35, Woodwater Lane, Exeter, EX2 5JY Tel: Mr.Bob Bradshaw, The Old Post Office, West Hill,Ottery St. Mary, Devon, EX11 1TR Tel: Mr. S. Philp, Highlea, First Raleigh, Bideford, EX39 3NJ. Tel: Mr Mike Boyle, 26 Copland Meadows, Totnes, TQ9 6ER Tel:

2 The next general meeting of Devon Twinning Circle is on Saturday July 21 st It will be held at Culm Vale Bowling Club, Exeter Road, Cullompton, EX15 1EA. at 2pm. Lunch will be served at 12:30pm at 7.50 a head. The menu will be:- Pate-crudités, Selection of Quiches and Salads, Choice of Desserts. Vegetarian option available. If you have any dietary needs please advise well in advance. We hope you will be able to join us for Lunch. A reply slip is enclosed please send it to the address below with your PAYMENT. The committee looks forward to seeing you and other members of your Association at the meeting. If you are able to wear a badge with your name and Association on please can you do so. It is for better and easier communication with other members. Badges and a pen will be available for you to make one if necessary. Directions to Cullompton. From Exeter. Take the B3181 via Pinhoe and Broadclyst. As you approach Cullompton the Bowling Club is on the left immediately after small new-build estate before the Bradnich/Cullompton roundabout. If you miss it go around the roundabout and approach it from the other direction! Plenty of parking. From M5 From the M5/ Willand follow the brown signs for Killerton which will take you through Cullompton High Street. Pass Aldi and the Secondary School and on to the roundabout (mentioned above) where you will take the first exit and the Bowling Club is about 200yds on the right. Plenty of parking. REPLY SLIP Please Reply to :-Mrs. D. Speaight, 9, Knowle Close, Cullompton, Devon, EX 15 1TF. Tel: dianaspeaight@hotmail.com I would like to book lunch for person/s at 7.50 a head Please tick here for Vegetarian and state how many Please return this slip with your cheque made payable to Cullompton Twinning Association to the above address by July 14 th FROM ASSOCIATION. NAME Contact No (If DTC committee member please tick)

3 Message from the Chairman. The DTC meeting at Woolsery hosted by Bideford was well attended. In fact over the past couple of meetings the numbers have been well maintained. Hopefully this will continue. The talk given by Brian Butler was interesting all about the Life of a Pasty. These pasties are quite elusive and I find I am now looking in hedgerows trying to spot one! With the new Data protection law coming into force on May 25 th. you should have received a consent form re information of the contact for your association whose details will then be kept on our data base. It will mean as soon as that contact is changed we need to be inform. Hopefully minutes etc. going to the wrong person should be ruled out. The next meeting is in Cullompton on July 21 st. I won t be at that meeting. I have a prior engagement in Wales. So I will hopefully see you all at the AGM in Teignmouth in October. Don t forget we still need a new insurance officer and secretary. Pat. Sad News. Persis Stewart (wife of our treasurer James) passed away on Thursday 25 th May 2018 She had only been ill for four weeks with a very aggressive and untreatable cancer. Persis was secretary of Newton Abbot and regularly came to DTC meetings. On behave of DTC we send our condolence to James. Dates and venues for Meetings 2018/2019 October 20 th 2018 Teignmouth. April 20 th 2019 Exmouth October 19 th 2019 Tiverton January 19 th 2019 Exeter July 20 th 2019 Stokeinteignhead I hope you have enjoyed reading this Newsletter. Please keep the articles coming. Ideas being shared, how you have entertained your twinning guests, raised funds etc.and remember you will be entered into the Monica Sanders Competition. Please send articles, reports, photographs by to:jeanaplin@live.co.uk by post to Mrs J.Aplin, 13 Crowden Crescent, Tiverton, Devon. EX16 4ET

4 Report from Exmouth Twinning Association Twinning Tales, France. We had only been to France once before and here we were, getting of the coach with the other Exmouth Twinners and wondering who we would be staying with in Dinan. It turned out to be Louis and Bernadette. They lived in a lovely old house, near the town centre, and had three children. Maxime, the youngest, could not understand why we did not speak French. Louis was the arch typical Frenchman, speaking no English and with a Gauloises cigarette always on his lips. Bernadette was tall and slim, a musician in the town orchestra and a singer in the choir. We got along fine with them and have become firm friends over the last thirty years. Our coach trip on that visit was to Cap Frehel. We were warned that the toilet facilities on Fort la Latte, perched on an island out in the sea, were a little primitive. A French euphemism for a WC translates as sitting on a draft. So, we all queued to use the toilet. Sure enough there was a long drop going right down to the sea with waves splashing in at the bottom of the hole. Then we went to a large Manior House for coffee. The people there were trying to arrange an exchange visit with an English boy. Our Fourteen-year-old son was with us and he fitted the bill. Thus it was that he spent part of his summer holidays on a beach in Brittany, learning to sailboard and having a wonderful time. What the French lad thought of our humble abode in Exmouth I do not know, but he seemed to enjoy his visit. Dinan still has the moyen age fortified wall around the town, in case the English Kings ever decide to invade again. Every other year it has a weekend festival, the Fete de Rampart The entire town becomes medieval again. You feel right out of it unless you are in period costume. The Exmouth twinners went as the Famile de Dinan de Angleterre, who held lands around Lympstone, granted to them by William I after the conquest. We marched as such, in costume, in the evening defile around the streets. So it was that I went around a French town carrying a banner while wearing tights, a mini skirt and a beard. Part of the wall and fortifications is the impressive Fortress Duchess Anne. It was believed that there was a dungeon under it, but nobody knew where. Then some workmen found it, but it was outside the wall. We had an invitation to inspect it, which meant going down a small hole

5 and a precarious builders ladder. I got to the bottom and looked at the cramped, dank chamber with a stone slab for a bed. Then I saw a pair of lady s legs coming down the ladder. When the rest of her followed I saw that it was my wife. I had told her the she would not be able to go down and she had decided to show me that she darned well could! On another visit an attempt was made to teach our hosts to play cricket, while they took some of us to play Boule Breton. This is a cross between marbles and bowling. Played with balls slightly bigger than tennis balls the idea is to get as close as possible to a target jack. Knocking your opponent s balls out of the way is part of the game and as far as we could gather the scoring was based on who could get twenty-one points. As they invariably beat us they were probably better at counting. The promenade au Bateaux at St Malo became a twinning legend. It started when we got on the boat. Some English girls who were already on board saw one of our group. We know you! they shouted at our member. You did sex with us. This raised a few eyebrows. It turned out that he worked on a local newspaper and had been sent to their school to sit in on and report about their sex education classes. The boat set off among the many islands that dot the bay. The French writer Francois-Rene Chateaubriand is buried on one of them. Then, as we got right out into the bay, things started to get rough. It was like being on North Atlantic convoy duty. The boat heaved and rolled, water poured over the side and ran knee deep along the outside gangway where I was standing. Passengers had to retreat from the front of the vessel. Normally I am not a very good sailor, but that day I was among the few who did not get a very bad attack of mal de mer. Those who thought that they would ride in comfort in the top deck saloon were in a terrible state. Downstairs the carnage was even worse. People were offering money to the boatman to turn around and go back, but in the rough water he could not. Eventually we got back into calmer water and it was thought that all would be delivered back to the land. But no. the contract said that we were to be taken up the river to see the Rance Barrage and that was what we did. Many more things have happened to us during our jumalage visits. All may be told another time. Cullompton Twinning Association VISIT TO PLOUDALMEZEAU 5 TH 8 TH MAY ST YEAR On Friday 4 TH May a group of 26 of us set off from Plymouth on the overnight ferry. The crossing was very calm, a bit different from the last time we went over in October 2017 when we battled against Storm Brian. On Saturday we all woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed (well most of us!) As there were only 18 foot passengers, the twinners from Ploudalmezeau took them to Portsall by cars for the rendezvous at the O Donnel Irish pub. We met up with our hosts and after a quick refreshment we went off for lunch.

6 Later on in the afternoon we split into two groups to visit the seaweed museum and Le Verre Opaline, a stained glass artist s studio, both in Lanildut. I confess, I was not getting very excited about the prospect of the seaweed visit, but actually it was very interesting. The guide was very enthusiastic and she explained just how useful seaweed has been in the past and still is to this day. Lanildut has been the centre of seaweed harvesting for centuries and was used for agricultural fertilisers, heating, medicinal purpose and, in times of famine, for food. In modern times the thickening agents found in seaweed are used in the textile industry, foodstuffs, pharmaceuticals, soaps and cosmetics. Le Verre Opaline studio was fascinating and we were shown how a stained glass window was made, using lead strips to secure the pieces of glass together. Due to its malleability, the finished work has to be left for several weeks to harden off. There were some delightful examples of the artist s work, including some Tiffany and glass with ceramic work in beautiful colours. These two visits took up the rest of our first day and entailed quite a lot of standing, and possibly due to the passage of time, more of us found it necessary to find a chair to rest our aching backs, knees, whatever! In the evening we were invited to the official dinner hosted by the mayoress of Ploudalmezeau, Marguerite Lamour. Speeches were given by Marguerite, and Diana and Yvonne, Chair of Cullompton and Ploudalmezeau respectively. The general theme was that despite what Brexit brings, the friendly relations between our two towns will continue and flourish. A placard with illustrations of St Andrew s Church and the story behind Cullompton s name was presented to Marguerite Lamour on behalf of our Town Hall. After quite a busy first day we all headed home to fait dodo ( in some cases probably aided by a night-cap or three!) On Sunday we had the morning free with our host families to pass the time until the next visit later in the afternoon. Some of us were lucky enough to go to a local Fete du Cheval in the small village of Treouergat, where the local breed of Breton horse was celebrated. The Breton is principally a draught horse but can also be used for riding, rather similar to the Welsh Cob, Fell or Highland ponies. The parade around the village included horse drawn traps, a caravan, drays and many ridden and led horses, some with foals. It was a beautiful morning and great to see so many people out to support their local breed. According to the local press, up to 3000 people attend this fete incredible for such a small village event.

7 Later in the afternoon we went to Landeda to visit L Abbe des Anges which was undergoing restoration started 15 years ago. The abbey was founded in 1507 by Tanguy du Chastel and is gradually being restored to its former glory. The location was wonderful, right by the seashore, surrounded by attractive well maintained gardens which must have been a peaceful place for the monks to meditate when they were in residence. In the evening we all went to Le Jardin des Abers in Breles for dinner hosted by Ploudalmezeau Twinning Committee. Entertainment was of the home grown variety with songs by various brave souls, both English and French who managed to keep us entertained while the rest of us relaxed to let our dinner digest. On Monday morning the two committees met for their joint meeting to revue the past year and share plans for the next. After lunch with our families we then drove over to Plougonvelin to visit the WW2 Museum. The museum was on five levels of a restored German bunker and had numerous interesting artifacts from the war and tableaux showing what living conditions were like and what the war meant to this area of Brittany which was critical in the battle for Brest. It was a fascinating exhibit and the panoramic view from the top was superb and demonstrated exactly why the bunker was built here. The weekend came to a close on Tuesday when those returning to Devon were driven to Roscoff to catch the afternoon ferry to Plymouth. So sadly another visit is over, the time flies by, but this weekend has been very relaxed with plenty of free time to spend getting to know our hosts better and enjoying the wonderful weather which blessed us from beginning to end. Now the thinking caps will be donned to start planning for the visit by Ploudalmezeau twinners in May 2019.

8 Editorial Ottery Gazette July 2018 issue Pont L Eveque Twinning visit to Ottery Ottery St Mary Twinning Association warmly welcomed their French Twinning partners from Pont L Eveque during their bi-annual visit to Ottery. It was a perfect weekend being also the royal wedding and cup finals weekend, so much to celebrate! East Devon looked fantastic, bathed under a constant blue sky with the early summer foliage, blossoms and hedgerows looking their best; our guests enjoyed visits to Bicton Gardens, Killerton House, some choosing to explore the Jurassic coast and beaches - east Devon has so much to offer. Mark Rix, chairman of Ottery Twinning welcomed our guests including Mayor Yves Deshaye and his wife Helene - for some this was their first visit to Ottery, for others is was to meet with old friends - Ottery has been linked with Pont l Eveque for over 40 years and during that time many families have formed long friendships. Twinning in Pont L Eveque is very popular and their members list keeps expanding we were able to entertain 45 guests, each family being hosted by a member of Ottery Twinning. Mayor Yves Deshaye and his wife Helene Mark & Marge Rix (Chairman O.St. Mary) A hog roast in a members garden was the perfect venue to relax after their journey, it enabled everyone to catch up on family news and for the new members to meet Ottery members, Sunday evening a dinner was held with entertainment by the Sidmouth Ukulele Strummers. We continue to build strong ties with our French partners and a visit by Ottery Twinning to Pont L Eveque will take place May A group of members from Ottery Twinning will be the guests our German partners in Ilsfeld from 21 st to 25 th June, more news about their visit at a later date. Twinning is a special relationship between two communities it is the making of a public statement of intent between them, and is sealed by the signing of a Charter. This places an obligation on both parties to uphold the spirit of twinning and to ensure that it is carried on for the benefit of the community as a whole. Twinning is a way of giving open and general acceptance to a bond of friendship and of continuing goodwill between the two communities. As time goes by, it means making opportunities for groups large and small individuals and families get together on each other s home ground, to entertain each other, to make and share enjoyment together. It is hospitality freely given and freely received. If you feel you would like to join in the fun and hospitality of all that twinning encompasses then please do join us contact Mark Rix markrix@talktalk.net or telephone

9 Our next social event is the annual Treasure Hunt, a trip round the lanes and villages of east Devon ending up for light buffet refreshments in a local hostelry, this is to take place on Friday 6 th July leaving the Land of Canaan car park, Ottery at 6.30pm please contact Mark if you wish to join us, you will be most welcome. 30 th Anniversary Dinner 16 th March 2018 Yealmpton has been twinned with Milizac, in Brittany since At the end of April this year over 40 people from Yealmpton will make the trip to Milizac for a weekend to celebrate 30 years of twinning. Several of the original twinners from both Yealmpton and Milizac will be present, although this is an amazing achievement we would very much welcome new members particularly families into Yealmpton Twinning! To mark the occasion in Yealmpton we celebrated with a dinner, the menu included: Celebration glass of Prosecco! Roasted Red Pepper & Tomato Soup, with Italian breads Asian style Salmon with crumb topping, Dauphinoise Potatoes & Broccoli Trifle Cheese &Biscuits Coffee & Mints The evening was a enjoyed by all and we look forward to our visit to Milizac to renew friendships and make new ones.

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