Looking back on visit to Saint-Contest
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| The group with their hosts in Saint-Contest. |
Notwithstanding the four and a half years since the French colleagues from Saint Contest came to visit Kilcullen and formalise our twinning partnership, friendships were instantly renewed within moments of landing on French soil, writes Tanya Flanagan of the Kilcullen Twinning Group. Five of the committee members were waiting to greet us in Beauvais and accompany us back to their picturesque part of Normandy. During our four day long visit, the hospitality shown by the committee, the host families and the wider Saint Contest community was warm and genuine.
On the first evening we were treated to a reception hosted by the Mayor and the Twinning Committee which included performances from the local traditional pipe band and Norman dancers. We were so delighted to have our own Irish dancers from the Jennifer Landers School of Dance with us and their dancing was very much appreciated. It was an evening of laughter and song as we were all encouraged to join in and we tried our hand at the Norman dances and encouraged them to join us in the Irish reels.
Saint Contest is in the heart of a very beautiful and historic part of of France and the next two days were filled with visits to amazing places of interest in the area including Omaha Beach, the American Cemetery, Bayeux and its famous tapestry, the D-Day Museum in Arromanches and the Canadian House on Juno Beach.
While it was both moving and an honour to visit these historical places, what will remain with me was the genuine warmth and cordial nature of our hosts. Stephanie and Stephane were the original powerhouses behind the twinning and they are still very much committed to the partnership with Kilcullen. Their committee has grown to include many new members and there were very big crowds at the events in Saint Contest and on the visits.
We really understood that the twinning means an awful lot to them and they share our determination to make it work. Without a doubt we share a love of music and song so there is definitely potential for future links in this area. There were also long conversations with local teachers about growing partnerships between our schools, Scoil Bhride and Cross & Passion College and their schools and to me this really is the key to the future of our partnership.
Our last morning there saw the official unveiling of the sign celebrating our twinning — it was really lovely to be a part of that ceremony.
Now our thoughts must again turn to their next visit back to Kilcullen — it will be difficult to trump their last visit in 2019 when truly we were so lucky to have had them here over a busy St Patrick's Day weekend full of fun, music, theatre, rugby and of course the opening of Fairy Trail ... there was definitely magic in the air and it seems to have followed us to France for our visit too. I look forward to seeing where the next phase of this Franco-Irish partnership will take us — vive le jumelage et l'amitié entre Saint Contest et Kilcullen!
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| At the 'Canadian House' on Juno Beach. |
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