About Us
Who are we?
Our Twinning Association was formed in the early 1990’s to be a part of the Devon-wide network of towns and villages twinned with a French counterpart. We have over thirty members, not all of whom live in the village, and anyone is welcome to join; see here for more information. You can also download a copy of our 2019 brochure.
Twinning (or Jumelage as it is known in France) exists to promote cultural and social exchange with overseas countries. Our chosen “twin” is in France, where neighbouring villages Le Pré D’Auge and Les Monceaux joined together to twin with us.
What do we do as an Abbotskerswell group?
We meet 10 times a year for our monthly social events, normally in Church House but in the summer we also have outside events, such as garden parties. Our get-togethers always include food, wine and sometimes entertainment! It’s social, friendly, inclusive and good fun in a spirit of fellowship. Even if you do not know anyone currently in Twinning, we always make new members extremely welcome. Some of our newer members are with us solely to take part in our social activities, and do not take part in our French visits and other members just participate in the visits and exchanges with our French friends. And you don’t have to come as a couple - we have several single members.
What do we do with our French friends?
Every two years, we visit our French friends for 3 days, normally in May and in the intervening year, our French friends visit us, again for 3 days.
Le Pré D’Auge and Les Monceaux are two villages with a combined population of about 800, in the Calvados region of Normandy, about 60 kilometres east of Caen. On both occasions, there is an active programme of entertainment and visits to local attractions. We stay in our French friends’ houses, and we reciprocate when they visit us.
Can’t speak French or only speak a little French? Don’t worry! It’s amazing how a little “Franglais” goes a long way to breaking down barriers and contributes to the overall fun of the occasion.
What else do we do?
We try and promote cultural exchanges between other Abbotskerswell based organisations and Le Pre D’Auge counterparts. See this video which depicts a French Cafe that ATA set up alongside the Village Primary School early in 2015. Currently, we are helping promote links between our school and the Le Pré D’Auge school (which is actually in La Boissière).
The first group of primary school children went from Abbotskerswell Primary School to France in June 2016 to spend time with French families and in 2017 French children from the school at La Boissière came to visit with our children. For more information, please see this article.