A warm welcome from our Chair

Hello, my name is George Dunseath and on behalf of the Executive Committee of the Brentwood/Montbazon Town Twinning Association I should like to welcome you to the Association’s website.

We are a group of Brentwood residents, you might say Francophiles, who meet regularly for social activities, to raise funds and organise annual exchange visits with friends in our beautiful twin town of Montbazon, just south of Tours in the Loire valley in France.

Covid prevented us from meeting up with our French friends, but since then we have met in France in the summer of 2023, and over 40 visitors from Montbazon came to Brentwood for 5 days in August 2024.

They included young people who are very keen to visit us and to get to know British people.

Events included the Mayor hosting a civic reception at the Town hall and visits to Lavenham Guildhall, the Secret Nuclear Bunker and Bury St Edmunds. The 30th anniversary was celebrated with a dinner at Bentley Golf Club.

If you are interested and can offer a spare room (or a sofabed) and meals, please get in touch with our Secretary at brentwoodfrench@gmail.com. You don’t need to speak French, as most of our visitors know some English.

Montbazon has many artistic, cultural and business clubs and associations.   One of our functions is to encourage friendship and to facilitate links between similar groups.  If you would like to find a partner for your club or association, try http://www.ville-montbazon.fr/fr/associations If you need help with this, please contact us.

We also have monthly French chat sessions at Brentwood Library.  The dates are here.

If you are new to the idea of twinning, I hope the information on this website will spark your interest and that you will consider joining our friendly group.   Membership is only £10 annually for adults – and free for children if a parent joins.

We also raise funds for our annual exchange visits. We have also established visits between the Brentwood Art Society and their counterparts in Montbazon and hope to develop links with tennis, dance, rugby, bridge and pétanque clubs.

We welcome your feedback on all aspects of our Twinning, but particularly on the website as we seek to produce something fit for the 2020s.