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Petersfield Twinning Association
Promoting goodwill and friendship with Barentin in France and Warendorf in Germany
Designed by Phil Chapman.
JUNE 2010 NEWSLETTER
Dear Fellow Twinners,
We have recently returned from our biennial visit to Barentin where, as usual, we enjoyed ourselves very much and were welcomed by our French friends. There is a full account of our visit later in the Newsletter, thanks to Jill Hancock to whom I am most grateful.
We all enjoyed the Sausage and Mash evening in the United Reformed Church hall. What an excellent venue it is. We managed to make a profit at the end of a very pleasurable and sociable evening. Many thanks to all who helped with the food but especially to Bridget West for sourcing excellent sausages.
The AGM passed off as AGMs do and, thanks to our Treasurer, we were able to see pictures of Barentin and Warendorf on the big screen when our DVD of last summer’s visit to Germany failed tro work properly. We welcome Liz Bisset to the committee and were sorry to say goodbye to Elizabeth New to whom we offer a large thank you for all her hard work over the past few years.
Looking forward:
The walk to Buriton is planned for Thursday, 24th June, to start at 6.30p.m. from outside The Grange on The Causeway. We shall have a meal (for those who would like to) at The Master Robert afterwards. If you don’t feel like walking, then do join us for the meal at about 7.30p.m. We need to let the pub know the numbers we expect to have for the meal, so if you are planning to come along, please send in the reply slip at the end of this Newsletter to let me know not longer than a week beforehand, i.e. 17th June. The Master Robert has recently changed its style of menus and there is a wide choice of food available, from cream teas to cooked meals, so there should be something for everyone.
We are to hold a Plant and Cake Sale on Saturday, 10th July at the Pop-In Club in Winton House in the High Street, from 10.00 a.m. to 12.00 noon. All contributions of cakes and plants will be most appreciated. If you are dividing plants, or taking cuttings, perhaps you would remember us and donate a few you do not need. Items may be handed in any time from 9.00 a.m. onwards. We shall need people to help on the day, so if you are free, if only for half an hour, please send back the appropriate reply slip. Encourage your friends to come along, too, and give us some support - as well as finding a few bargains.
We also plan to hold a Car Treasure Hunt on Saturday, 4th September, starting from The Half Moon P.H. in Sheet at 2.30p.m. We hope to have a meal at the end of the drive. The cost will be £5 per car - payable on the day. If you have space in your car for an extra passenger, or if you would like to take part but have no transport, then please let us know and we will do our best to accommodate everyone. Again there is a reply slip to return.
There will probably be another Quiz some time in October, but no details are yet available. More information next time.
Planning for the Warendorfers’ visit in August continues. We now have 43 visitors expected, so they are taxing our ingenuity, and we are hoping to find things to appeal to all their varied ages.
As well as the student coming to work at Meon Valley Travel for three months this autumn, we have another young girl coming from Warendorf at the same time to work in Churcher’s Junior School. She is 19 and has just left the Mariengymnasium after being Head Girl there this last year. If anyone would like to help with accommodation (on a paying guest arrangement) for a month at a time between October and March 2011, it would be much appreciated.
Meanwhile, keep practising your French and German. We hope to see you at one or all of our activities during the summer.
Best wishes,
Gill Clarke
Chairman
Jill Hancock’s report on the visit to Barentin: 8th to 11th May, 2010:
I am not sure why I delayed my first visit to Barentin for so many years after the twinning began, but there I was, sitting for the first time in the square in front of the Mairie, my suitcase at my feet, hoping to make contact with my as yet unknown hostess. Claudine turned up very promptly, introduced herself and drove me out to her beautiful house in the Hameau du Petit Cidetot, a village not far from Barentin. From the moment of arrival, it was all go - just time to change, and then we were off to Caudebec-en-Caux. It was near here, we learned, as Roland Tessiau took some of us around on a brief tour, that Victor Hugo’s daughter and son-in-law were drowned in a tidal wave shortly after their marriage. It was here, too, that we had an excellent celebratory dinner, generously funded by our hosts, at the Hôtel de Normandie.
Ready for dinner at the restaurant Inside the War Memorial Museum at Caen
An early start on Sunday morning brought me, thanks to two other kind hosts, to Caen in good time. There we spent time in the powerful Mémorial Museum, where the atrocities and difficulties of the Second World War were vividly portrayed. The weather, on the whole unseasonably chill, was however warm enough for us to enjoy a very good picnic lunch outside, where everything was still directed at ‘remembering’, from the actual structure of the terrace, built to express the tensions of war, to the glass steles recalling the Canadian units who were part of the Normandy liberation force. We went on to Pegasus Bridge, in Bénouville, where British airmen landed in gliders; the first house in Normandy to be liberated, now a café, still stands and, looking round at all the artefacts and memorabilia, one might fancy oneself still in 1945. Some of the group went on to the coast, and some took a leisurely way home. Claudine and I were invited to an evening of enjoyable conversation and delicious and thoroughly self-indulgent crêpes.
Monday morning was free; Claudine and I visited Carrefour for a little desultory shopping, and then five of us went on to have lunch in the first self-service Chinese restaurant that I have come across, where you could eat as much as you wanted - it was excellent! The afternoon was spent in Rouen, where we split into two groups. I went with the one going on the more unusual tour, on which we were shown lesser-known sights, among them the tower where Jeanne d’Arc was imprisoned before her burning, the Art Deco railway station and the Maison Marron. A very pleasant afternoon ended with us all meeting together in a café. That evening it was Claudine’s turn to entertain, so that was another gourmet meal, although how she prepared it all for six of us, when we were out all day, I cannot understand. The evening went on, with increasingly loud conversation and much enjoyment until late.
Then it was our last day. Claudine managed to fit in a quick visit to Yvetot, to see the modern church there with its magnificent stained glass, before we returned to the Mairie for a farewell drink with the Mayor and lunch (another kind invitation) and then our journey home. I thoroughly enjoyed the whole weekend and I am most grateful to the committee for all the arrangements and to Gill Clarke in particular for representing us so well - and, indeed, to her and Vaughan for so kindly sharing their car with me for the journey. It may have been my first visit to Barentin, but if I have any say in the matter, it certainly won’t be my last!
Jill Hancock
THE MAGIC OF TWINNING
In early May, twenty one members of Petersfield Twinning Association set off for France to visit their twin town, Barentin which is twelve miles north-west of Rouen in the Seine Maritime region of Normandy.
All the members were eager to see their friends from across the Channel, many of whom had known each other for many years.
The visit coincided with the sixty fifth anniversary of VE (Victory in Europe) Day and a visit to the atmospheric War Memorial Museum at Caen had been arranged for the Petersfielders together with a walk along one of the D-Day landing beaches. The War Memorial set the scene for the D-Day landings and gave a fascinating and detailed history of the Second World War and provided an insight into just how severely the area had been destroyed by bombing and the invasion by German forces. Perhaps the most fascinating exhibit was the model showing the D-Day beaches and what happened on each of them on that day which changed the history of the world.
This was followed by a trip to one of the war cemeteries where many of the English and some American, Canadian and German soldiers were buried. The cemetery, which was located at Ranville, the first place to be liberated from German occupation and close to Pegasus Bridge, was very neatly and lovingly tended. There were flowers and small shrubs between the headstones which were laid out in straight rows and the atmosphere felt extremely peaceful.
Ranville Cemetary and church Eric Chapman's grave
As visitors went in through the entrance to the cemetery, there was a small box set into the wall on one side of the entrance which was labelled “Register”. Petersfield Twinning Association’s Honorary Treasurer, Phil Chapman, noticed this and suggested to his wife, Alex, that they should look in the Register under the surname Chapman just in case his uncle Eric’s name appeared there. To their surprise, Eric’s name was indeed in the Register together with a reference as to where the grave could be found.
The entry in the register relating to Eric Chapman
They were able to trace the grave and the couple were quite overcome by the emotion evoked by the magical moment. Phil knew that his uncle, who was in the Royal Signal Corps, was buried somewhere in France but was amazed to actually find the grave in what was a chance visit to the correct cemetery. The French hosts seemed equally surprised and also extremely moved by Phil unexpectedly finding his uncle’s grave. The event has even made the local French newspaper in Barentin.
The Twinning visit went very well with a convivial evening spent at Caudebec-en-Caux where the French hosts had arranged dinner at a restaurant overlooking the river Seine.
A visit to Rouen on the Monday had also been arranged and the visitors had plenty of time to explore the area during the rest of their time in France as well as to take a trip to a hypermarket to purchase French specialities such as cheeses and wine.
To see the August 2011 Newsletter click on this link
