Didcot–Meylan Twinning Association 

Newsletter no.3, November 2000

Editorial
Since our official twinning ceremony November 1999 our links with Meylan have become firmly established. The year 2000 saw several exchanges between our
two countries and very enjoyable they were too!
    Budding friendships, both with our French partners and with our fellow members in and around Didcot, are developing. A wide range of age groups and interests
has been involved to date and we look forward to further links and stronger bonds between Didcot and Meylan in 2001.
    This is our third newsletter to date and we are grateful to all those who have contributed reports, photographs and anecdotes for us to share with you. This is our
main method of communicating with you, our members, and feedback from you is essential

From the Chair
This is our third newsletter, but my first piece as Chairman of the Association. We are trying to develop the newsletter both as a source of information and for the spread of news. If you have any news, information or comments, please send them to the editor. Perhaps, we ought to have a “letters” section.
    Now that the official twinning ceremonies at both Didcot and Meylan have come and gone, it remains for all of us to make the links between our towns work. I would therefore encourage you to read of the success of the recent Music Festival in Meylan elsewhere in this issue. Each of our two secondary schools in Didcot sent 24 students and four teachers to this very important event. Our sincere gratitude and thanks to both schools and those who went to the Festival. By all accounts, the event was a great success and everybody thoroughly enjoyed themselves.
    For a variety of reasons, Didcot was not represented at the recent Sports Event in Meylan. Les Newell, from the town council, went to Meylan both to “apologise” for our lack of delegation and also to “see and learn” how they organised this event. Current discussions are centred on Didcot organising a similar event in the summer of 2001. I will keep you informed of developments.
    In this issue, you will read about a “Late Christmas Party” which your committee has organised for Saturday Evening 20th January 2001. Our aim in organising social events such as this is an attempt to bring those interested in twinning together to develop and share ideas and friendships. I hope that many of you will be able to make it to the party. Incidentally, if you have any ideas of the things that we could organise, please do not hesitate to drop me a line or to e–mail me on chairman@didcottwinning.org.uk.
    May I wish you all a Happy Christmas and a Prosperous New Year. May 2001 bring you joy and happiness.

Facts and Figures
 
Sponsors 10
Family members 40
Corporate members 10
Visitors to Meylan 200+
Visitors to Didcot 150+
Age range 6 weeks to 85 years
Didcot to Meylan 681 miles
Meylan to Didcot 1091 kilometres

Lunchtime Party
On a rare, dry September 2nd day, in what must pass for an English summer, we met for an informal lunch at a prominent member's home. The original plan had been for an evening party, but given that the evenings could be rather chilly, this was changed to lunchtime. Everyone brought a plate of food, which we shared, and everything else was provided. Thirty-six people, some from the trip to Meylan in June and other members, enjoyed a very relaxed and convivial meal in the garden of our hosts’ home. We shared photographs and stories and were joined by Dennison Van Uye, from Meylan, who was staying in Harwell and trying to organise teams of youngsters for a sporting event in November. The social was very much enjoyed by all and we would like to extend our thanks to our hosts for being such excellent hosts.
    Our co-ordinator since the start of the twinning was presented with a framed print of Didcot as she is moving north. Our thanks for all her hard work, especially for her excellent translations.

My visit to Meylan by Tom Stevens SBS
I have recently been to Meylan with my school choir. We went from London Stansted to Lyon. We left on the 1st of November and we returned on the 5th of November. There were around 50 pupils of both the Didcot Boys and Girls schools on the trip ranging from the 8th year to Sixth form. Teachers from St Birinus and Didcot Girls Schools, including the heads of Music at SBS and DGS,  were also part of the visiting party.
    We arrived late afternoon on Wednesday and immediately had a full choir rehearsal with the orchestra. We rehearsed in the new music centre near the school in Meylan. We sang with 2 French choirs and another choir from Meylan’s twin town in Germany. The French choir were really helpful, friendly and amusing. We sang the Gloria by Vivaldi, the Inno Delle Nazione by Verdi. I thoroughly enjoyed singing these pieces with the other choirs. We sang our concert in the Hexagon theatre just outside Meylan.
    We visited some caves, which were surrounded by enormous cliffs. These caves were indescribable. They had enormous stalactites; they were over 2 metres long! The caves are well worth a visit and I strongly advise you visit them if you go to Meylan.
    I think everyone who went really enjoyed staying with their host families. It was a really good experience and I would love to do it again. Everyone really enjoyed themselves in Meylan, I know that I certainly did and I hope to go back in the near future.

Music Event in Meylan - November 2001
One of the highlights of this term has to be the visit to Meylan, our twin town in France, with our school choir. From 1st-5th November girls from DGS and boys from SBS, including instrumentalists, stayed with French families and rehearsed all week for a very special Millennium concert in the Hexagon, sharing the stage on
Friday night with adult musicians from Meylan and Planneg, their German twin town.
    They performed Vivaldi's Gloria and Verdi's Inna Della Nationale. The solo numbers were performed beautifully by five from the Didcot party.
    On the Saturday they took part in various workshops in the brand new Maison de la Musique, ranging from gospel singing to improvisation classes to samba
percussion and on the Saturday evening the visit culminated in a disco for all involved. They also visited Grenoble, which is a few miles away and had a chance to
visit the beautiful mountainous scenery of the region.

Sports Event in Meylan - October 2001
The Didcot Town Council employee responsible for twinning attended the sports event for young people as a representative of Didcot and this is his report.
     I thoroughly enjoyed the event and was impressed by the professionalism of the organisation and the way in which the people of Meylan welcomed everybody who attended.
    The 4 day event which was fun packed from start to finish brought together around 100 young people (and 'young at heart' adults) from the Town's of Didcot,
Planegg, Gonzales and of course Meylan. Activities that took place were football, volleyball, swimming, badminton and orienteering as well as demonstrations in
gymnastics, jazz dancing and martial arts.
    The young people were split into groups ensuring that there was a mix of nationalities in each group. This made for some interesting conversations but more
importantly many new friendships were made over the course of the event. Each group was assigned a colour and issued with a T-Shirt to match. Each team was
also assigned with an adult who would be responsible for the group throughout the event. I was placed in charge of the 'Vanilla' team, made up of 2 French, 4
Germans and an American.
    The idea of having mixed nationalities in each group was extremely successful, although it did rather test my ability to control an excited group of teenagers who
spoke 3 different languages! Although the emphasis was on fun, each of the sports was undertaken in a competition format, so imagine my joy when the Vanilla team stormed to victory in the first event, the football competition! However, the phrase "peaked too early" soon became apparent for when it came to the afternoon event (volleyball). My team seemed a little tired to say the least. The kids were obviously tired from their morning exertions; my only excuse was too much wine at
lunchtime! The lunches were an event in their own right, everybody met in the college hall and extremely nice packed lunches were provided for all. For the adults,
copious amounts of wine were supplied and as a result afternoons always seemed to be a little less hectic than the mornings.
    On the evening of the 1st day there was a 'Bring & Share' supper followed by a disco till the early hours of the morning. All of the host families were invited and it
was a thoroughly enjoyable evening.
    The second day saw all of the teams enter the pool for a swimming competition followed by orienteering around Meylan in the afternoon. The purpose of the
orienteering was to ensure that everybody got to see the town of Meylan. It certainly served this purpose, as each team must have walked about 10 miles, I now
know Meylan better than Didcot!
    In the evening the young people were free to either spend time with their host families or to practice various sports in the college gym. Meanwhile the adults headed off to Grenoble for a 5-course meal. It was a wonderful evening and once again there was more than enough wine to enjoy.
    The next morning was set aside for shopping in Grenoble, however, winter had decided to descend upon the region, and so it was off to an indoor shopping mall
instead. In true tourist style, all of the young people headed straight for McDonalds, I wasn't far behind them.
    In the afternoon it was back to the sports hall for a Badminton competition followed by a jazz dance demonstration. Unfortunately, due to work commitments I had to head off to the airport mid afternoon and therefore missed out on the closing ceremony held in the Town Hall that evening.
    I can safely say that I thoroughly enjoyed myself, as too did all others taking part, I made many friends and am extremely glad that I had the opportunity to attend. It is largely understood that Didcot will be staging a similar event in 2001, I wish everybody involved every success and hope that it will be as enjoyable for those
taking part as the Meylan event was.