Visite de jumelage
Burnley/Vitry-sur-Seine
Octobre 2000

by Alan R. Palmer

My wife and I are members of a twinning group Burnley/Vitry-sur-Seine. Town twinning is very common in Europe. Towns "twin" with each other in order to establish certain cultural/educational links and also to organise reciprocal annual visits between the some of the townsfolk of the twinned towns. The twinning group committee members organise these annual visits and act as facilitators for other visits by groups such as school parties, local sports clubs, and local interest groups (e.g., choirs). Each twinning committee meets regularly with twinning members in order to organise fund-raising events during the year.

Vitry Town Hall

The town of Vitry-sur-Seine is in the south-east region of l'Île de France just 4km from Paris. It has some similarities with my home town of Burnley in north-west England in that it is very industrialised and has about the same number of residents, many of whom come from different ethnic backgrounds.

As an adult learner of French, I became involved for reasons of interest in 1995. One major aspect of any visit is that locals provide accomodation as "Hosts" and usually recieve an invitation to stay with their respective guests on return visits. The idea of welcoming someone from Vitry appealed to my wife and me, plus I could also practice my French! The official "Twinning" visits are usually held over a weekend usually at annual holidays (such as at Eastertime) when members may have more time to be involved.

In 1995 my wife Marie and I welcomed a visitor from Vitry called Francine, who stayed with us for 3 days and has since that time welcomed us to her home three times including a superb weekend in October 2000. Marie and I participated in this October visit which was very well organised by the both Twinning committees and we were part of a main group consisting of 20 visitors from Burnley. We travelled by coach starting out late Friday evening (20th)
and after a long 14-hour journey (including an interesting crossing through the "Chunnel" (Channel Tunnel) we arrived in Vitry at 9:30am.

Meeting our friend Francine again was great. She was there with the reception group at the "Mairie" (a large, recently-contructed building in the centre of the town of which the Vitriots are very proud). The committee members had the task of introducing the visitors to their respective hosts. Obviously there was no need in our case, as well as with some of the others vistors from Britain, as they were, like ourselves, already well aquainted with their host
families from previous visits. After a short while, everyone made their way to our hosts' homes to be made very welcome.

In our case, Francine had already prepared some breakfast for us and we tucked in heartily after the long journey. I was immediately into conversing/interpreting in French as Francine only speaks a few words of English and my wife speaks no French. I must admit that although I felt I should be more fluent than our last visit in 1998, after 14 hours in a coach I found it quite difficult to find the right words at first. Despite my initial disappointment, I was happy to find out that by the late morning I was improving the speed by which I could "call up" the necessary phrases to enable a relatively straightforward conversation in order to catch up on our "nouvelles": family, local events, planned things to do during the weekend.

In the afternoon we visited a large shopping mall called "La belle Épine" which was fascinating. This was located in a very busy part of south-eastern Paris not far from Vitry itself and we strolled through looking at the various stores, making comparisons with malls in England and buying a few things for the weekend. Eventually we decided to eat at one of the many "themed" restaurants. When asked by Francine to choose which restaurant to eat in, we of course opted for "French" and dined at "Le Flunch" - which I think is the French equivalent of McDonalds (although with a much wider choice of "fast food").

Returning back to Vitry in the early evening, we got changed and then went along to "La Mairie" for the planned evening "Twinning" event for all participants who could make it. This consisted of a small welcome presentation in both
French and English and a light buffet with wine(!). A "Karaoke" had been organised, which provided participants with a choice of both English and French songs. The evening went along very well with budding singers trying their hand at singing in different languages sometimes with amusing results! It was also an ideal opportunity for different hosts and guests to get to know each other. I found myself being asked to be the interpreter to some conversations, which was
flattering and I was asked to help set up further meetings or visits for later that the weekend on more than one occasion.

Later in the evening the Deputy-mayor responsible for the local authority's involvement with Twinning said a few words thanking those who had contributed and offered accomodation which was gratefully received by the organisers.Then some gifts were exchanged between the two committees which is customary at these events. The evening finished
off with a disco and everyone had a good time.

In France in is notable that the local authorities are much more involved with the organisation and financing of the Twinning activities and provide office space for the committee. In Britain the local town councils are not involved to the same extent and this makes it more difficult for the Burnley Twinning committee, particularly when raising funds to be able to invite the Vitriots and provide them with a similar welcome to that offered by the Vitry Twinning committee.

A Parisian "bateau-mouche"

The next day (Sunday) was superb. Francine had offered to take us around Paris and we duly arrived by car around lunch-time. Being Parisian, she knew all the best ways to see as much as we could during the afternoon and starting off from the "Hotel de Ville," we walked by the Pompidou centre, visited Notre Dame Cathedral and then by many other interesting sites including the world-famous Louvre. After a short break for a "casse-croûte", we took a trip on a "bateau-mouche" which took us along the Seine right up to alongside the Eiffel tower and back to Notre Dame, which was one of my personal ambitions fulfilled. The weather for October was particularly warm and this added to the excellent opportunities to view Paris from the river both in comfort and style. Between the "Pont Neuf" (which suprisingly is the oldest bridge along the Seine) and the Eiffel tower was an iron bridge (which unfortunately I have forgotted the name of) which Francine told us her father had been involved in constructing and of which she was justifiably proud.

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Alan Palmer October 2000

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