Home » Latest Newsletters

Libourne Jumelage (Twinning) will be visiting Keynsham between 10th -15th September 2020. We anticipate that at least 15 Jumelage members will be visiting, with the additional possibility of some members of the Libourne Council joining them.

The following programme has been suggested (not finalised yet) :

Thursday 10th – 5.35pm Arrival Bristol Airport – hosts collect and take guests to The Space/Libourne Lounge (possibly for a welcome by the Town Council).

Friday 11th – Visit to Bristol which could incorporate a tour of the Old Vic Theatre (including food) and a visit to the M Shed and SS Great Britain.

Saturday 12th – Free day with host family

Sunday 13th – Visit to Bath -Lunch / Guided tour of Bath/ Croquet at Bath Croquet Club

Monday 14th – Visit to Cardiff. Possibly to include Welsh Parliament, Cardiff Castle, Museum and Art Gallery.

Tuesday 15th – hosts take guests to Bristol Airport for 1.50pm departure

In addition to the above we are exploring an exchange with Saltford Tennis Club – Libourne have been approached to see if there is interest.

Could any members willing to host or wishing take part in any of the activities please contact a member of the Committee for further details.

The Twinning Association participated in the Saltford Christmas Fair, making a small profit, and also paid for and decorated a Christmas Tree at St Johns Church – a traditional event in Keynsham.

Our October quiz, held at St Mary’s Church Hall, Saltford, raised £686, the most we have made from any quiz. John Sweet was our quizmaster, and twinning members helped with making and serving hot dogs and cakes, with setting up and running the bar, and with the administration of the quiz. A great evening was had by all.

Our popular quiz is back – the next one is planned for Saltford Church Hall, on Friday 4th October. The quizmaster will be John Sweet, who has led many successful quizzes in the area. Details will be sent to all members in due course. Could all members please put the date in the diary and start to put together teams. Please send details of teams, (or let us know if you would like to join in but do not have a team), to Anne, Pete, or Carole. Any non-members are welcome – please contact via the website email address.

Two social events were arranged as “trials” for possible inclusion in the visit from our friends in Libourne in 2020.

The first was a Jazz Evening on 3rd July at the “Undercroft” of St Mary Redcliffe, Bristol, featuring the “Bluenotes”. 24 Twinning members attended and it was an enjoyable evening, with good music and food. Thanks to Stella Hurley for organising. All agreed that we should try to include this in the programme for next year.

The second is planned for 15 August – a game of croquet at Bath Croquet Club. A few members are going to give this a go. It’s a game that most likely originated in France, but is now the epitome of an English summer game! If this goes well, we will also add it to the programme for next year.

We are very aware of our increasingly elderly membership age profile, and have been exploring for some time possible links with schools and families to bring in a younger membership.

We have developed a good relationship with Broadlands Academy, a secondary school in Keynsham, who allowed us use of the school free of charge for our last quiz (see below). Broadlands are keen to introduce an after-school French Club, and we have discussed with the Principal whether we could assist in establishing it. We have decided to make a joint application for a grant from Keynsham Town Council, based on the potential benefits to students and their families and with the objective for us of bringing students and their families into our Association.

More news on this will follow once we know whether of not our funding application, which will be considered by the Council in June, has been accepted.

Our first event of the year was a very enjoyable Quiz evening at Broadlands Academy on 22 March. This was a successful evening despite being planned rather quickly (too quickly to advertise it on this website), with almost 70 participants who enjoyed the questions, games, bar and – a first for us – delicious fish and chips delivered from a local chippie at the break. A further quiz is being planned for the autumn.

A jazz evening for members has been arranged for Wednesday 3 July, 7pm. Featuring the “Blue Notes” the evening will be held at the Undercroft Jazz and Supper Club, St Mary Redcliffe, Bristol. Entry costs £5. A home-made meal will also be available – cost £5 plus £2.50 for dessert/cheese. Travel from Keynsham and Saltford via bus X39. Contact Pete asap to reserve a place.

The following are being planned for 2019

- Quarterly social gathering with wine and food
- Talk/Workshop on Cooking Skills
- Twinning Quiz<
- Various themed talks – some with links with France
- Jazz evening in Bristol with a meal
- Dance/Barn Dance

There are a number of social events before Christmas. This includes the AGM on Monday 3rd December – whilst this is a formal meeting it is followed by a social evening of buffet food, wine etc and we will be showing photographs of the 2018 visit to Libourne.

Full details and future plans are included in the Social Events section

After all the celebrations of 2017, the first part of 2018 has not seen much activity in the Twinning group. We held a couple of table top sales and attended a quiz at Broadlands School. The latter arose because the school have expressed interest in becoming involved in twinning, which is good to hear, as it is on young people that the future of twinning depends. We will work closely with the school to develop how best to get them involved.

The main activity of 2018 has been the visit to Libourne. See the “Exchanges” section for a report on what was an extremely enjoyable visit.

Sadly, shortly before our visit, we lost our vice-president, Viv Seward, after a long illness. Viv had been involved with our Twinning Association since its inception, and had done so much for twinning over the years including organising much of the 2017 visit. Viv was a passionate believer in twinning and she will be hugely missed.

The Committee will be meeting shortly to arrange some social events for 2019, which is a year with no exchange visits.

We ran a stall at the Saltford Christmas Market which attracted a lot of interest and we also decorated a Twinning christmas tree in St John's Keynsham. Happy Christmas to all our members and their families.

We have a stall at Saltford Christmas Market on Saturday 2nd December between 10am and 2pm at Saltford Hall. There will be a raffle of French wines, French cheese tasting , photo displays and plenty of early Christmas cheer.

There are always really lovely craft stalls at this market, so it's a good opportunity to buy a few stocking fillers. Please show your support by popping by.

Secondly there will be a decorated “French theme” Twinning tree at the Christmas Tree Festival at St John's Church in Keynsham between the 8th and 10th December, so please come and have a look. Children usually love this, so either bring your children, grandchildren or borrow some from a friend!

Follow this link to read about an interesting visitor to Libourne who became a Bordeaux Wine Ambassador

The annual meeting was held on 9 November 2017, attended by 17 members and prospective members. Carole Duckett, President, opened the meeting with a review of the year, primarily the 40th anniversary visit in June. This had been widely viewed as successful, and we had received very positive feedback from the French visitors. Carole also referred to some comments she had received in emails from Keynsham members expressing how much they had enjoyed the events.

The Committee thanked Carole and Viv in particular for their hard work in putting together such a successful programme, and Pete for producing the information board on Market Walk.

Pete tabled the annual accounts and reported on a successful financial outcome to the June visit. Last year’s AGM had agreed a budget of £3000, and the actual cost was finalised at £1867.25, less than two-thirds of the budget. The expenditure was also contained within the current account, with our savings account remaining untouched. Fundraising during the year included a coffee morning, a quiz and a crepes stall at Saltford Festival, which together raised £440.

The meeting then discussed the timing and duration of the 2018 visit to Libourne, based on an invite received from the Libourne committee. The visit will be in September, although concern was expressed that visits outside school holidays precluded younger families from participating. This issue will be discussed further with the Libourne Committee with regard to future exchanges but is unlikely to change the planned 2018 dates. After much debate it was also concluded that the visit should be 7 days, but with an option for a shorter 5 day visit for some members for whom 7 days is too long.

At the end of the meeting those attending enjoyed a buffet meal accompanied by some of the wine gifted by the Libourne visitors, making for a convivial evening, and it was pleasing that most of the prospective members attending subsequently decided to join.

A full programme of events has been arranged for the visit of the people and officials of Libourne who will be in Keynsham from 29th June 2017 to 6th July 2017 to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Association

The programme is as follows:

A successful and fun Quiz Night was held in March 2017. Over 80 people attended, forming 17 teams, and almost £400 was raised for the Association.

With no exchange visits during the year and with the 40th anniversary celebrations in 2017 in mind, the main activity during the year was fundraising.
Three very successful events were held – a coffee morning at the Fear Hall, Keynsham, a Barn Dance at Saltford Hall, and a Quiz Night at British Legion Keynsham, with Honorary Treasurer Peter May as quizmaster.
For all the events the Committee worked hard in selling tickets, promoting the event and preparing food. In all we made a profit of over £1000 from these events – a valuable contribution to the financing of the visit of the people of Libourne in 2017.

• January, 2015 Newsletter
• December, 2013 Newsletter
• September, 2013 Newsletter
• November, 2012 Newsletter
• April, 2012 Newsletter
• December, 2011 Newsletter
• September, 2011 Newsletter
• April, 2011 Newsletter
• December, 2010 Newsletter
• Agust, 2010 Newsletter
• June, 2010 Newsletter
• March, 2010 Newsletter
• November, 2009 Newsletter
• September, 2009 Newsletter
• June, 2009 Newsletter
• April, 2009 Newsletter

Thanks to a grant from Keynsham Town Council in 2009, you are now looking at this website.