Witney Town Twinning

The Twinning Association of Witney works tirelessly with our two twin towns of Unterhaching in Germany (about 20 miles from Munich) and Le Touquet in France, encouraging visits to and from schools, visits to both towns for events such as the Beer Festival in Unterhaching, their Christmas Fairs and notably their Remembrance Days.  Of particular interest for gardeners is Le Touquet who have flower festivals every spring and summer and the Association arranges trips to visit the town to take maximum advantage of the displays – not to be missed!

Many friendships have been forged over the years and we are now seeing the children of our friends having children of their own – it is like being in an international ever growing family.

As we approach the anniversary of twinning with both Unterhaching and Le Touquet arrangements are in progress to celebrate 20 years with Germany and 30 years with France.

One thing the Town Council are trying to do is visit Le Touquet with a view to designing a Witney Garden in a new development.  We also hope that visits of our Council Officers with those of Le Touquet will result in planted areas in Witney from Le Touquet swapping information, tips and advice will be invaluable over the years.  One particular part of Witney that has impressed  them enormously is of course our Country Park.  They have nothing like it and want to investigate building something similar!

The Association has many social evenings and is a great way of making new friends with interests that range from gardens, language, sport, food, music – I could continue but I think you get the idea.  Why not offer to put up some of our visitors when they visit Witney?  A good way to get to know people in other countries and have a friend to act as host and guide when you visit their town.

Do they have any fun in all this?  Let me tell you that last year I hosted a barbecue for members of the Association with a group of students and friends from Unterhaching and we thought we would introduce them to the old Oxford game of “Aunt Sally”.  The looks on their faces was something to see when faced with glasses of Pimms and the offer of six sticks to launch at this wooden block on an iron stick!  The Pimms worked well though and everyone soon entered into the spirit of the game.  I have to tell you though that, to our eternal shame, the Germans won hands down.  More practice please!

I have had the privilege of attending the Remembrance Day services in Unterhaching where our modest and traditional wreath of poppies was initially totally dwarfed by the huge floral offerings from the town, its other Twin towns in Poland, France and Austria and local organisations.  After the laying of the wreaths, each person had to make a short speech – be warned that David Harvey, my partner who is also a Past Mayor and is well known in Unterhaching and I took turns with my speech in German, (David, whose German is fluent and better than mine! did this part) and I did the French and English (easy that bit!) and a little bit of Polish.   I am reliably informed by one of the Polish representatives that I did not call anyone “a cross eyed malodorous goat”!

Cllr Chrissie Curry

Interested in getting to know our twin towns and perhaps practice your French or German? Contact Sue Hopkins, the Chair at the Twinning Association on 01865 300443