How it all began in France

The Twinning began in 1977, with the town of Cassis on the south coast of France, near to Marseille - a beautiful coastal resort. The formal Twinning document was signed in 1978 and several trips were undertaken at two yearly intervals. The tenth anniversary was celebrated in 1988, but thereafter visits were few and far between, principally because of the distance involved. Eventually the Twinning was dissolved because of dwindling numbers, but we have retained a Friendship Link.

In 1997, our Chairman, Mike Mansfield, was passing through a small town in Brittany - Louvigne du Desert - and called in to the Hotel de Ville to see if he could talk to anyone

The Pays de Louvigne du Desert consists of a canton, made up of six communes - Louvigne itself and St Georges de Reintembault are the two towns,
and there are six villages - La Bazouge du Desert, Le Ferre, Melle, Monthault, Poilley, Villamee.

Thus began our present Twinning, which is so successful - we have involved King Alfred's school, who now have regular exchanges of pupils,
young footballers, and ex-servicemen.

The formal Twinning documents were signed in Monthault (one of the communes), in October 1998, followed by a similar ceremony in Burnham the following year.

Louvigne is a small town, with granite and agricultural industries. It is about 30 kilometres from the sea, and has many places of interest within easy reach - Dinan, St Malo, Mont St Michel, Dol de Bretagne, Fougeres, and so on. Their weather is similar to ours.

Louvigne has a three-day Flower Festival every four years, which includes an agricultural fair - something like the Bath and West - the big
parade of flowers, and markets set up in the town square. The Bretons regard themselves as Bretons first, and French second, and many of their customs and traditions date back centuries. There is a Breton language (vaguely similar to Welsh apparently) but this is not widely spoken now.