Final Day in Vaujours

Already the last full day had arrived.
The morning was pleasant and refreshing as we had a walk through the local park which until the 1970's was home to a gun powder plant and had now been reclaimed by nature, so I can walk through parks here in England why travel to France? Well its simple they have red squirrels and parrots. Ok so the parrots are a new alien invasion over the last 6 years or so (so I am told) and have bread and now have a large colony. It was quiet fascinating the history and now the way the park is developed.

Lunch with the Mayor of Vaujours was next on the agenda, we were joined by another Mayor from Belgium who is also twinned with Vaujours. This got me thinking and i have since started a map showing twinning links spreading from Tamworth. During this meal we exchanged stories and information such as a chat about the governance of local authorities and the roles of the Mayor, leaders and chief executives etc along with the history of wearing a chain or a sash. But this meal was not just about informal chat we also had some open and frank discussions about the role of twinning and how it can be moved away from just civic dinners to more meaningful twinning. It was apparent that our continental colleagues still have a firm grasp of where they want twinning to be going.

So with lunch over and a quick tour of Vaujours looking at their latest projects and then an hour off to prepare for the "Best Wishes" event that evening.

The Best Wishes event concluded my official stay in Vaujours (all I had to do is catch a plane in the morning). This event included a speech from the Mayor about the years successes and projects then followed by a buffet of various foods from different food outlets throughout the town.
The projects included a nursery built and opened, overhead cables in some streets buried beneath the road and a new football stadium. This was presented to about 400 local residents, I wondered if we could get away with such an event in the Uk where there is a basic dislike for the majority of politicians and local authorities. In France however this was a celebration of the councils achievements.

Another great day in vaujours and some real learning. I have three jobs to do in relation to true value of twinning and those links are already being made.

Private tour guide

Last night we were picked up at 6:30 by a few members of the twinning association in Vaujours who had taken it upon themselves to treat us to a meal in Paris. We visited a cathederal before settling into a nice restaurant a few yards away.

This is my first experience of France (apart from a day trip to when I was at school) so I had a choice to make do I order a safe salad and a cheese burger or do I go for it and try the snails. It had to be the snails, so I'm sitting in a french restaurant over looking Paris listening to the French voices and a piano playing in the corner thinking this feels very French. Then I thought of the film pretty women where she uses the clamps and sends her food flying across the table, "really hope I don't do that". No it was fine I ate the snails easily and really enjoyed them. I sent an mms of them to my children in Tamworth, the three year old was apparently quite disturbed by what I was about to eat.

The meal was a really nice treat from few people hosting us.

Following the meal we all jumped into 2 cars and drive into the centre of Paris. One of the comments I made was that if I had come here without the twinning I would not have had the experience I've had with the twinning. Michele being local knew his way around the capital and knew the history so as we drive round the land marks he explained them and if we wished he would stop a let us take photos, we took in some fantastic sights such as driving past moulin rouge, the Eiffel tower, notre dam etc, and all the time he asked us what we wanted to do next.

The twinning association in Tamworth can certainly offer this type of friendship with our neighbours in France and Germany. But I feel there is alot more that can be done with exchange of ideas practices and learning across the board.

Anyway I'm having a fantastic time and alot of networking, looking forward to spending the day with the Mayor of Vaujours.

First 24 hours in Vajours

I probably left the airport about 24 hours ago now and my feet have barely touched the floor. On arrival at our twin town in France I was taken to a local residents house for a meal which I have to say was fantastic the openness and friendliness of the French involved in twinning is amazing. With having a very limited knowledge of French I was made to feel very welcome as everyone tried to translate for me and the food just kept coming I left their house around 1am and prepared for an 8am departure to Versailles.

It's quite warm for the time of year in France (around 10 C) and whilst overcast we had a pleasant journey to the palace of the sun king Louis XIV, well what can I say the place looks wonderful with the gold railings as you approach the building. To describe it is one of those times when it would be great to use the line "a pucture says a thousand world so here's some pictures) but as I am typing this in a hotel reception and I have yet to finding how to post pictures on blogger from my iPhone I simply can't show you. Needless to say it was a great experience walking around learning about the building and some french history. On thing That stood out for me was the shear size of the place and the immaculate grounds we walked around.
Whilst in the grounds we stopped for lunch in a nice restaurant where once again I had the chance to try some combinations of foods we just don't try in the Uk (as I am not talking stereotypes)this was followed by a long pleasent walk back to the minibus, the grounds are such that you feel a million miles from anywhere not so close to the sneaky populated Paris.

I write this entry as I wait for my hosts to pick me up for and evening in the capital. There is so much opportunity within twinning in Tamworth that we need to harness but there needs to be more involvement and drive, I would recommend people especially younger people to join up and explore France and Germany with the help of some friends within either sides of twinning

Bad Laasphe Pt 3 (Small Walks and Christmas Market)

Our second day in Bad Laasphe started with some free time which we used to have a short wander around the centre of the old town which consists of some really old timber framed buildings dating back to the 1200's.

When the time came to be met we were invited on a “Small Walk”, this sounded great however our hosts idea of a short walk was not quiet the small walk I was expecting. We were taken to a small park up a small hill which housed the local war memorial, and what a fantastic view of the town there was from there, you really got a sense of the wooded hills surrounding Bad Laasphe.

Right walk over and off to open the Christmas market, this was a small market in the old town which had a real Christmas feel to it and as far as I could see only sold take away food, beer and mulled wine which was fantastic. Once again I found myself going through the motions of guessing what to do as I had no idea what was being said. I stood on stage as their mayor thanked people for coming and thanked those who had sponsored the event. This was done with parcels wrapped under a tree one with each sponsors name on which were read out in tern.

Later that evening before dinner we had the opportunity to return to the market which was packed, there were loads of people eating drinking an milling around it was a fantastic atmosphere really welcoming.

Bad Laasphe (Pt2) Fire Fighting

It was a privileged to be able to attend the handover of a new turntable ladder at the Bad Laaspe fire station. The weather was a tiny bit damp, more drizzle than rain, and there was a cold wind as we arrived at the Fire Station, as we rounded the corner into the yard we where greeted by around a dozen appliances and  vehicles plus loads of people.

The handover ceremony started almost immediately after we arrived with the Bürgermeister (mayor) of bad Laasphe making a speech and presenting the chief fire officer with a giant Iveco Key to symbolise the had over of the new appliance. After a few speeches (in German obviously and well translated by the person next to me) I was Introduced and called forward to make a presentation to the chief fire officer, before I left for Germany being on the Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Authority I arranged for an authority plaque to take. I presented my gift much to the pleasure and honour of the Chief fire officer this was followed by Tony Goodwin (Chief Executive of TBC) presenting the station with a gift from the council, we too received gifts  and relaxed to chat.

Our relaxation was short lived and replaced with exhilaration as Tony and I were given the opportunity to go up in the new ladder platform, we both stepped in and the platform began to rise. to our surprise the movement was very smooth and stable without wobble or jolt, before we knew it we were 6 storeys up (100ft 30m ish) swinging around in the air looking down on roof tops and about 150 people below. the feeling was amazing, I would never had dreamt I would have the opportunity to do this but there I was 6 storeys up and not able to speak the same language as the person operating the controls.

Feet back on the ground and legs becoming shaky it was time to join the other guests in the fire station and enjoy some refreshment, conveniently the chief fire officer is also the local brewer and the local Bosch Pils was flowing nicely. Once again the residents of Bad Laasphe were really friendly and we spent allot of the evening talking to both members of their twinning and local fire fighter who made us feel really welcome.

The Fire service in Germany is voluntary (in a similar was to our retained crews a payment is paid however this goes through their employer) and the local community raises funds for equipment, but the dedication of these fire fighters is second to none.

We had a fantastic evening till around 10 o'clock when a days travelling from Tamworth began to take hold and we made our way to our hotel room for the week end.

Bad Laasphe (Pt1) The Golden Book

31 years ago Tamworth and Bad Lassphe (Germany) signed a declaration that we would Twin and build relations between the two areas. This year as Mayor of Tamworth I travelled to Bad Laasphe to sign their Golden book in the spirit of reaffirming this relationship and also attend the handover of some nice fire fighting equipment.
The first thing that struck me about the visit was the genuine welcome we received, and the pleasure they had that we had made the effort. speaking not a word of German made the speeches interesting but not a problem as we had great a translator who had volunteered to assist, not only that but many of the people we met spoke good English too and made us feel very welcome. They still have a real grasp as to the value of twinning and the learning and sharing opportunities that it provides, the weekend really opened my eyes to this and I feel we in Tamworth should do more to raise the profile of the learning that is available through twinning.

So signing the golden book. Every visiting dignitary that Bad Lassphe has is invited to sign the golden book, this is kept in the Rathaus or town hall and serves as live reminder of the recent history of Bad Lassphe. I quickly scanned the book to see what to do and who else had signed it the first page I opened at random was on from 1985 and contained the signature of the greatly missed Sammy Munn. Having taken a moment to inform the councillors of Bad Laasphe of his sad passing it was on with the ceremony which was attended by local councillors and the local press.

So with the book signed by myself, the Mayoress and Tony Goodwin the chief exec of Tamworth we retired to another room where we had time to met and chat to members of the twinning group in Bad Laasphe and councillors of the area including exchanging stories about the Staffordshire Hoard and previous twinning triumphs.