I visited our French twin town, Meudon, for the first time recently, with the Twinning Association of Rushmoor. For some reason, I'd got it into my head that it was an industrial town, perhaps because it became our twin town as a result of its place in the development of the Concorde, so I was expecting something not dissimilar to Farnborough. It was a delightful surprise to discover a very handsome town with incredible views of Paris. And the people I met were lovely, really friendly and helpful.
We had expected to participate in Meudon's annual Christmas Fair, which takes place in the gardens outside the Orangerie, where we sell British Christmas fare to raise money so that less fortunate young people can have opportunities to travel to our twin towns to participate in cultural activities. But the Christmas Fair was cancelled because the Orangerie is being renovated. This was a disaster because we had already booked our hotel, Channel Tunnel, mini-bus, etc, but the kind people took pity on us and arranged stalls at a variety of places around the town instead, including two local markets. This turned out to be so successful that we quickly sold out, and could in fact have sold twice as much merchanise.
Also there at the same time were a very talented student jazz band from Farnborough Sixth Form College, and I was invited to join them for a tour of Rodin's house and also of Marcel Dupre's former home, the site of probably the most important organ in Europe. The band proved a popular draw when they played where we were selling, which I'm sure contributed to our success.
On the Saturday evening, we were invited to a rather grand dinner at the Standard Athletic Club, popular with ex-pats ever since its creation by the Brits who helped to build the Eifel Tower. It was a great honour to be included, and I met some truly delightful people.
The whole trip took four days, with two days of travel, and I was exhausted when we got back. But I had to immediately head off to a lengthy governors' meeting at Cove School. Still, I'd do it again. It's a very good cause that really deserves our support.
