COOKHAM
TWINNING
Cookham
is fortunate to be twinned with Saint Benoit a village with woods and a river near to the historic town of
Poitiers in central west France.
The village has the highest possible ranking possible of 4 fleurs (flowers) for French 'Villes Fleuris' and is the only commune in Vienne with this status. It has developed its natural environment over several years, including their 'Les Jardins des Cookham'.
Saint
Benoit is in a fascinating and beautiful area of France, with many historical
towns and villages around, some going back to medieval times. The commune is
divided into three parts with a 12th century church and with a river running
through, just like Cookham!
Poitiers
is an ancient, interesting University town and is close to the theme park 'Futoroscope'.
Cookham
has been Twinned with Saint Benoit since 1994 and has annual reciprocal visits
when we link with French friends and stay in each other's houses. In 2024 we
look forward to welcoming Saint Benoit to Cookham,
when we will host a variety of social and cultural activities. In 2023 we will
be visiting Saint Benoit and look forward, as always, to a great experience and
welcome. Saint Benoit can be reached easily by car (via Portsmouth), plane or
train.
We
also have some regular activities in Cookham. Each week there is an informal
French lunch, 'Flunch' where we have an hour or so speaking French to each
other, and members are welcome to join a monthly French film evening.
You
don't need to be a French speaker to participate in Twinning, although this is
a chance to improve your French language skills. Best of all are the
opportunities to get to know some very friendly French people and to appreciate
and enjoy the culture of France.
EVENTS
FILM NIGHTS
Twinning members are very welcome to join our monthly French film nights, 8pm at Elizabeth House.
ST BENOIT VISIT October 2023
Our visit to Saint-Benoit is almost here, taking place over the start of half-term, October 21st - 24th. It will be the first visit since 2019, with a two-year Covid break, and then the visit of Saint-Benoit to Cookham last year.
Twenty-one of us will be staying with local families, and it is always interesting and enjoyable to experience typical French ways of life. We are fortunate to be twinned with Saint-Benoit, a lovely village with a great community spirit, situated just outside historic Poitiers.
Saint-Benoit has a strong environmental movement, encouraged and supported by their local council. We traditionally give them a gift from Cookham during the visit, and this year we will be presenting them, 'The Wind in the Willows', both English and French language versions, enabling us to talk about Cookham's water-vole project.
I'm certain that, as always, we will have a great weekend together.
Keith Le
Page
ST BENOIT VISIT September 2023 We are now very much looking forward to our visit to Saint-Benoit during October half-term. A group of about twenty people from Cookham Twinning will be journeying to Saint-Benoit, staying with local families and participating in a weekend of cultural and social activities.
Meanwhile the latest news-sheet from Saint-Benoit reports back from their 20th 'Flowers of May' festival, when the centre of Saint-Benoit is closed and becomes a flower market. The theme this year was climbing plants, and residents were able to have a free plant of their choice to embellish their garden.
The Saint-Benoit environmental focus continues, with all 1,425 street lamps being changed to LED. There is a target in Poitiers, (of which Saint-Benoit is a part), to reduce energy consumption in 2025 by 43% in comparison with 2021.
Saint-Benoit also has some cliffs alongside their river valley, and one of their ambitions is to re-establish safe climbing, working in collaboration with qualified climbing organisations. It is not expected that climbing the cliffs will be on the itinerary of our October visit!
Keith Le
Page
WILD ST BENOIT! July 2023 Saint-Benoit have an enthusiastic environmental organisation, 'Commission Citoyenne de Transition Ecologique', (CCTE), and we are connecting Wild Cookham to them. Our local environmental star, Brian Clews, has produced an article, 'The Wildlife of Cookham', which has been sent to Saint-Benoit for circulation around their Twinning and environmental organisations.
In the article, Brian describes Cookham's Garden Wilding scheme, the detailed hedge surveys, and most importantly, the work to re-introduce Water Voles to Cookham.
We have translated the article into French, and learnt that a water vole is 'un campagnol aquatique.
Brian was involved at the very beginning of our Twinning activities so it's very appropriate that he has now written this article to make an environmental connection between our two villages.
We have a good group already signed up for our visit to Saint-Benoit over October half-term, (21st-24th October), but spaces are still available. Anyone interested in joining this trip can find out more by contacting keith_le_page@hotmail.com. No French language ability is required!
Keith Le
Page
THE CORONATION June 2023 Our friends in Saint-Benoit also celebrated the May 6th Coronation with a nine-kilometre walk, in tribute to King Charles III.
The walk joined the neighbouring villages of Saint-Benoit and Liguge, with receptions in each location from the respective mayors. The walk also visited Saint-Benoit's 'Jardin de Cookham'.
We are starting to think about our visit to Saint-Benoit over October half-term, (21st-24th October). Anyone interested in joining this trip can find out more by contacting keith_le_page@hotmail.com.
Keith Le
Page
COOKHAM VISIT TO ST BENOIT Saint-Benoit's local magazine provides interesting information about their community. They
are a four-star 'ville fleurie', (the highest award), and their annual
flower festival in May attracts 15,000 visitors. There is a flourishing 'jardin de Cookham' and in 2019 they set up the 'jardin d'image'
a public space where an exterior exhibition of large pictures is shown in a
lovely garden setting. Saint-Benoit
is about the same size as Cookham, and has numerous village organisations as
well as a theatre seating 750 that also serves the local area. They are
twinned with locations in Germany, Portugal and Romania as well as with
Cookham. We
look forward this year's event, and to taking a group from Cookham to
Saint-Benoit in 2023. Keith Le
Page
OUR ARCHIVES
St Benoit Celebrates the Coronation of King Charles 2023
Cookham Twinning Visit to Cookham 2022
Cookham Twinning Visit to Cookham 2018
Cookham Twinning Visit More Photos 2016
Visit to Cookham's Twin Town - 2005
A Happy Twinning Christmas - 2003
Cookham Society and Cookham Twinning Come Together for a Joint Christmas Party - 2002
French visitors in Cookham for 'Allo'een - 2002
Cookham Twinning celebrate Christmas - 2001
Cookham Twinning Visit St Benoit - 2001
Twinning show film Plein Soleil - 2000
MEMBERSHIP
Single (£12 for two year/£25 for 5 years)
Family (£20 for two year/£40 for 5 years)
Click here for Application Form
For more information phone: 01628 532279
E-Mail: info@cookhamtwinning.org.uk
home
back