Hello, my name is Sue Kortlandt 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 has prevented us from meeting up with our French friends since 2019, but we hope to welcome visitors from Montbazon to Brentwood for 4 days in summer 2022.   They include young people who are very keen to visit us and to get to know British people.   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 hope to start our monthly French chat sessions at Brentwood Library fairly soon.  Watch out for news or drop an email to the Secretary (brentwoodfrench@gmail.com) if you want to be contacted when we have a date.

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.

Sue Kortlandt

 

A brief history of Twinning

Town twinning began soon after the end of the Second World War, as a way of rebuilding friendship between the people of Europe.   The movement was very popular and a huge number of towns and villages now have at least one “twin” somewhere in the world.

Our group grew from a link, organised by language teachers at Shenfield High School (John Roper) and Collège Albert Camus in Montbazon, in the 1970s.   The formal Twinning Agreement was signed by Civic Heads of Brentwood and Montbazon on 19^th March 1994.

The Twinning Association exists to encourage friendship and promote social, sporting, artistic, cultural, educational and commercial links with Montbazon.  We meet regularly for social events such as talks, quizzes, French films and meals and any other event you can think of!

We also raise funds for our annual exchange visits; in the odd-numbered years we visit Montbazon and in the even-numbered years they come to us.    We have also established visits between the Brentwood Art Society and their counterparts in Montbazon and hope to develop links with rugby, bridge and pétanque clubs.

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