Clubs, Classes & Sports

What's On

Friday 22 October 2010

Would you like a Milford on Sea twin?

Thanks to the Village Voice, I recently discovered that Hordle is twinned with Yerville, not far from my old adopted homeland in Deauville, France. I already knew that Lymington has a Twinning Association. I guess it is because Lymington is so posh that they can have three twinned towns, VitrĂ© in France, Almansa in Spain, and Mosbach in Germany. I am not sure if these should be more accurately described as ‘tripleted towns’?

As you may expect, the fact that Milford on Sea hasn’t even got one ‘Twinned Town’ got me thinking. My first reaction was to see if we could nick one of Lymington’s friends, but that plan may not be easy to execute. I therefore wondered why we did not get a twin when the others did. I am unsure whether this is due to us never considering the concept, or whether we have approached towns around the world to only receive abject rejection.

Previous readers will of course know that a few years ago we emigrated to France, for 6 weeks, so almost being a Frenchman myself, I consider myself an expert of cultural exchanges.  I asked a few friends for their ideas of places for us to twin with, Alistair came up with Monte Carlo, Colin thought New York might be good, Jon suggested Blackpool (Don’t think he really got the gist of the twinning concept!), and Bill recommended that I just join the Lymington or Hordle groups & leave the other poor unsuspecting international towns alone.

Sometimes I really wonder why I ask for opinions from the half-witted friends I have. My wife, ever interested in my fanciful projects, helped by suggesting; ‘Baghdad’, adding that I should perhaps go on a research mission for a year or so.

If you have any ridiculous suggestions of Towns we should twin with just let us know by posting a comment below. Should you prefer to get involved in some ‘proper’ local Twinning Associations, take a look at the following links:

Hordle & District Twinning Association:
Lymington & District Town Twinning Association

3 comments:

  1. Mary Ann Jardine23 October 2010 at 09:30

    We could consider twinning with Horarata, a village near my sister who lives in the South Island, New Zealand. Horarata had a beautiful church, nearly 100 years old, but it was severely damaged in the recent earthquake. It is where I worship when I visit her. Of course, New Zealand is a very long way away, but it is a lovely village with warm, friendly people.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Horarata sounds good to me. Quite fancy a trip to New Zealand. (Shame they don't speak French)It could be quite a lot of fun seeing a party from Milford on Sea rock climbing, white water rafting & wrestling the koala's. Not quite sure Milford on Sea has a traditional dance like the 'Mouri Haka'?, perhaps we could impress them with a waltz or two?!

    ReplyDelete
  3. The Lymington & District International Twinning Association has many members in Milford-on-Sea, which falls within the "District" of its name. Over many years, visitors from Vitre, Almansa, and Mosbach have enjoyed the hospitality of Milford residents, who in turn have been hosted in these towns in France, Spain and Germany.

    So Milford does not need to "nick one of Lymington's friends" -- they are already Milford's, as much as they are Lymington's!!

    Our friends from Almansa will be visiting during the first weekend of December, and we trust that any of them who may be staying in Milford will be afforded a warm welcome from the villagers.

    If you are interested in finding out more about LITA's activities, or joining the Association, we refer you to www.lymington.org/towntwinning as our own website is undergoing a revamp.

    Cheryl Blamey
    Chair, LITA.

    ReplyDelete

Please Note: Your comment will be approved by the administrator before publication. This could take 24 to 48 hours. Thank you.