February 2007

In April 2006 we welcomed a group of thirty-two friends from Chauvigny for four days of activities. This year it is our turn to visit Chauvigny. If our hosts display the same hospitality as they did when we last visited in 2005, then we are going to be treated to a most enjoyable and memorable few days. Our visit will be from 16^th to 20^th May. If you have not yet made up your mind whether to come to Chauvigny, there is still time to add your name to the list. Hopefully we will be able to match the total of 32 Chauvinois who came here.

Please contact Jeannine Watson on 01277 657624 or e-mail to jeanninewatson1@onetel.com if you would like to visit Chauvigny or to know more.

Four pupils and two teachers from Billericay School and Mayflower High School were hosted by the Sister Cities Association of Fishers USA and enjoyed the "Hoosier" hospitality for which Fishers is rightly renowned. They joined in the fun of the Renfayre weekend which is held yearly and is intended to celebrate the twinning of the towns of Fishers and Billericay. The Fayre recreates entertaining events in an English town of the middle ages and the English visitors ate roast turkey, watched sword fights, knights in armour jousting and were impressed by the skill of a Falconer and his birds. They also visited schools in the town and visited places of interest in Indianapolis and the surrounding area. Hopefully the Americans will be visiting Billericay this year and although we will not have an event such as the Renfayre they will have a good time seeing the highlights of Billericay and other towns in Essex.

The Association will again be taking part in the Billericay Fun Walk on Sunday 20th May. Last year just nine of us raised £376. The Fun Walk is organised for small local clubs and associations by John Baron, MP for Billericay. The picture shows Association members in action last year.

Participants raise sponsorship in the normal way but each organisation gets a proportion of a fund contributed to by local businesses, mainly EDF and Cleanaway. Last year we raised £376, made up of £276 which we raised on the walk and £100 from the fund. This year we have a problem in that the Fun Walk occurs on the weekend that we shall be visiting Chauvigny. So most of us who walked last year will not be here. It is not arduous, as there is either a three-mile main walk or a gentler stroll around Barleylands for the less able. If you would like to have an afternoon's fun and raise some money for the Association, just give John Buchanan a ring on 01277 656715.

More links have been made between Billericay and Chauvigny with the setting up of "pen-pals" between youngsters in the two towns; although instead of using pens the method of communication is e-mail of course. If you know of a young person who is studying French and would like a correspondent, give Patricia Clark a ring on 01277 625448

Following the successful meeting last April between the Institut Rural in Chauvigny and Writtle College, two Chauvigny students will be spending a short period at Writtle in the summer.

At long last after almost a year of waiting, the twinning road signs have been erected on three of the main roads entering Billericay. You will perhaps have noticed them attached beneath the Billericay signs approaching from Chelmsford, Shenfield and Wickford. A fourth sign has been manufactured in readiness for a Billericay sign on Noak Hill Road. The Billericay Town Council is pressing Essex County Council for such a sign.

Andrew and Margaret were representing the Billericay Twinning Association on the Annual Walk of Friendship which Chauvigny organises for its four twin towns. This year it took place in Limone, Italy. After the walk, Andrew and his wife were sightseeing in the town when Andrew slipped and broke his leg. When he returned home, complications set in and he passed away on the 28th September.

Andrew was one of life's movers and shakers. He was an extremely capable organiser and anything he did was meticulously planned. His particular talents, from which the Billericay Twinning Association benefited, were fund-raising and photography. He was full of ideas and won over doubters with his enthusiasm and his irrepressible sense of humour - and he was invariably right!

Andrew had the gift of making friends wherever he went. We received many messages of sympathy from France, Germany and Italy, from people who knew him through his visits with the Twinning Association. Tributes were also received from his old work colleagues in the insurance world, who remember him especially for his friendliness and his sense of humour.

The Twinning Association in Chauvigny made a generous donation to Andrew's charity, the RNLI, and in October they bought a rose bush which was planted in the Festival Garden in Crown Road, Billericay. The picture shows Margaret and me planting the rose bush.

Andrew will be very much missed on both sides of the Channel. André Teyant from Chauvigny completely summed Andrew up when he said that he would meet a stranger and immediately turn him into a friend.