18/05/12………….’Vive le jumelage’

AS well as the huge success of Thame?s Music In The Park on Sunday, the town?s golden weekend had begun on Friday evening when a group of friends from Thame?s twin town of Montesson, arrived for the weekend, welcomed by the then Deputy Mayor, Nigel Champken Woods.

Hosted by local families, the visitors were blessed with fine weather for a visitor to the Guildhall in the City area of London, a picnic lunch in a little park that used to be a church before it was bombed in WW11. Here a bust of Shakespeare stands on a plinth in memory of John Heminge and Henry Condell who had the foresight to publish Shakespeare’s works following his early death. The pair were fellow actors and personal friends of the bard and had been co-partners with him in the Globe Theatre, Southwark.

The tour ended on the roof terrace restaurant of the new shopping mall, 1 New Change, London?s newist shopping destination, in Cheapide by St Paul?s Cathedral, designed by French architect, Jean Nouvel. From here the view across London is breathtaking and the eye is level with the dome of St Paul’s – a perspective of his masterpiece that Sir Christopher Wren could never have known anyone would have!

The evening was spent with host families, where family news and the Euro crisis dominated the dinner table conversation. The general view seemed to be that French people had voted against Sarkozey rather than for Monsieur Hollande but most remain concerned about the economic future of the Eurozone.

Once again four young people with special needs from ?le Courlis? in Montesson, were included in the weekend visit, staying at the Spread Eagle Hotel, and joining their friends from Safari (The Wombles) in Thame, to ‘let their hair down’ for a disco and party at the Barns Centre on the Saturday evening.

The weekend culminated in a two-course lunch for the 65 French visitors and hosts, in St Mary?s Church, which had been transformed into a banqueting hall for the occasion.

At around 3pm, after a tour of Thame shops for many of the guests ? admiring the many Jubilee window displays on their way round (anyone know where you can buy lemon jelly in Thame?) – to replenish medicines, which are apparently more expensive in France, to buy cupcake stands, mint sauce and Marmelade making kits, the French coach was waved off, with hopes that Thame ?twinners? will be making the return journey to Montesson themselves in September.