This is a brief note for any British person who has the good fortune to be visiting the town in France with which Brentwood has been twinned since 1994. As a result of that twinning, people from Brentwood have had the chance to visit Montbazon for a week every two years, and people from Montbazon can visit Brentwood in the alternate years. (Thus, 2023 we went to Montbazon, 2024 they came to us).Each visit is around a week, and usually one stays as a member of the visiting group in the house of a French family as their guest and day-trips are arranged by the French Association; and we return the hospitality the next year.
Each time I have arrived in Montbazon the first thing I have seen is the Union Jack. Flying above the signpost announcing that you are entering Montbazon, twinned with Brentwood. Our partners are very proud of this connection, and the redoubtable Mayor of the town – it is spelled Maire and pronounced as in the English word – one Madame Sylvie Giner, who is elected by the population – ensures we are given this honour. (I do not say that flag flies in any other weeks than the one we are there for a Twinning visit!) The Maire, who has a power in the town as is the French tradition, is an executive figure like Sir Sadiq Khan or Mr Andy Burnham in the United Kingdom. She spent some time at Shenfield School in Brentwood and we are lucky that she speaks fluent English.
Montbazon is a historic town in France with a population of around 5,000 people. It is to the south-west of Paris in the Indre-et Loire department, near the cities of Tours and Angers. Montbazon is a commune, which means it is largely self-governing, with a historic core and a thriving business area. The river Indre it sits upon is spanned by an elegant 1750s stone bridge, and it is looked down upon by a huge statue of the Virgin Mary which sits atop the historic Fortress, built in the 10th century by the Count of Anjou, Fulk Nerra, known as “the Black Falcon”. The ruins of the fortress, a solid tower, remain impressive. That statue is relatively recent. It was put there by the personal bequest of the Empress of the French, Eugénie, a devoted catholic, in 1866 (the wife of Emperor Napoleon III, who was deposed four years later, she was partly educated in Bristol, and her son died in the service of our Queen Victoria during the Zulu War in 1879. She lived until 1920 and was buried in Farnborough).
In the centre of Montbazon (in parts mediaeval) around the bridge, there is a small but thriving shopping area, with a good cheese shop, a bar that offers proper coffee, and an area called “La Guinguette”, which is built next to the river and houses more bars and restaurants and is a sort of playground for the people of the town. I have danced there, not very well, but also dined there, far better. After a long day at a local chateau there is no better place to drink a long beer. A French member of their Association has run an elegant soft furnishings shop nearby. Nowadays most Montbazonnais probably buy their essentials in the large supermarket, in turn near to the railway station where there are 5 trains daily to Paris and the TGVs whizz through on their way to Tours or other cities. Montbazon is a quiet and quietly prosperous town but with an active social and cultural life. In the centre is the historic town hall, built in 1836, in the style of Charles X (the last Bourbon king of France) and an old church rebuilt in 1849.
Outside Montbazon there stretches the lovely countryside containing chateaux, such as the one at Candé where Edward, our abdicated King, married his sweetheart Wallis Simpson in 1937, and another at d’Artigny, rebuilt by François Coty, of perfume fame, in pure 18th-century style. Many of the chateaux are now restaurants and hotels, often Michelin-starred. Intriguingly, the area contains a number of “troglodyte” places where modern Europeans live in caves and breed silk-worms or can grow mushrooms. Not too far away is the distillery where the famous liqueur “Cointreau” is made, and the castles at Tours and Angers are worth a visit. Tours – which is 10 miles from Montbazon and gives its name to the local people and the wine area (‘Tourangeau’ and ‘Touraine’) is a deeply important city in European history, with a famous university and cathedral. At Angers many French monarchs have lived, as also at Amboise.
Like Brentwood, Montbazon has played its part as a place of Christian pilgrimage, where pilgrims would rest on their way to Santiago de Compostela, in the form of the Hotel-Dieu, one might say, the house of God, built as long ago as 1476. Along the river are many watermills, and citizens of the town may be able to buy a strip of land leading down to the river where they can dine and relax and picnic (or pique-nique). In my view the douceur de la vie still exists in France if you know where to find it. Montbazon is one such place where you could look!
Websites
https://ville-montbazon.fr/loisirs-et-tourisme/destination-montbazon/ (This includes a section on Brentwood, “jumelé” with – twinned with, Montbazon. )
https://www.forteressedemontbazon.com/
https://www.grandesetapes.com/chateau-hotel-artigny-loire
https://guinguette-montbazon.fr/.
Michael Duggett
Member of Brentwood/Montbazon Town-twinning Association
Member of Executive Committee
October 2025
Brentwood/Montbazon Town Twinning 