Tarporley, Cheshire, England – Bohars, Brittany, France
Our plans aren’t certain yet but we are planning:
An adults’ visit to Tarporley from Bohars over the early May Bank Holiday, from the Saturday the 29th of April to Monday 1st May. You can host or just take part in the events.
A young persons visit to Bohars from Tarporley possibly between the 20th and 30th of August. Â Children pay for their travel to/from France; everything else is taken care of by their French hosts.
If you are interested then do please get in touch!
Fifty years ago, on 2 January 1973, Brittany Ferries tell us their first ship set sail from Roscoff en route to Plymouth. Called Kerisnel, carrying a cargo of cauliflowers, onions and cognac, and bringing Brittany Ferries, owned by the Brittany farming community (which still largely owns the business) to life. Tarporley and Bohars twinners have often used this service in the 35+ years of our Twinning.
Brexit, Covid and politics may have unsettled us, but things are getting back on track and to help them celebrate this special 50th anniversary Brittany Ferries invited Twinning representatives to join them on board their flagship Pont-Aven in Millbay Plymouth on 2 January 2023 for a reception and anniversary dinner on-board.
Here are a couple of pictures from the event. Can you spot our party in the top picture?
Well the visit from France has just ended and as I write they are winging their way back to Brest.
In a packed programme the youngsters enjoyed themselves at Manley Mere, climbed an indoor rock face at Ellesmere Port, visited Alton Towers, went biking in the forest at Delamere, had a barbecue, looked around Chester and went swimming in both Chester’s Northgate pool and at Delamere’s outdoor wild swimming. It’s exhausting even listing it all!
Between the 20th and 27th August, a party of French children from Bohars aged between 13 and 17, along with an 18 year old leader, are travelling to us to see Tarporley and the surrounding areas. Again this is after a covid-created gap in our annual exchanges.
We are looking forwards to their visit! If anyone would like to help out in any way then please get in touch. We could still do with a couple of new host families for the children. This involves providing accommodation and food; everything else is organised by the Twinning Association. No fluency in French is needed!
In May 2022 we were able to visit Bohars again, after a covid-induced interval.
We visited Les Ateliers des Capuchins right in the heart of Brest, the biggest covered public square in Europe. It has a varied history of being a monastery, then workshops for various activities including fabrication precision equipment for warships, and now is an open space community workspace and museum
We also went to Locronan, a a medieval unspoiled village in Brittany, south of Brest, a delightful village with some strange characters!
We also visited a Cabaret, exchanged a celebration cake and gifts for 40 years of twinning, making the firm statement that after 2 years of pandemic, we are back and open for business. We were all looked after very well, and all 9 of us had a very good and fruitful time!
As hoped for, we have been given the green light and we will be visiting Bohars over the first Bank Holiday weekend of May 2022. The Early May Bank Holiday weekend from Saturday April 30th to Monday 2nd May.
We are now planning to resume our visits in 2022!
We have been invited to visit Bohars over the first Bank Holiday weekend of May 2022. That’s the Early May Bank Holiday weekend from Saturday April 30th to Monday 2nd May.
In the summer we are hoping to host a group of children from Bohars during August 2022.
More information when it’s available but if you are interested in visiting Bohars, or in hosting children here in the summer of 2022 then please get in touch.
The Craft Room in Tarporley recently organised an art competition for young Tarporleans with the theme “Home”. It fitted in well with the Twinning Association’s aims of introducing each others’ homes and villages to the people of Bohars, young and old, so we sponsored the contest’s prize.
The entrants were aged between 6 and 13, and the standard of the entries was very high. All the entries could be viewed by villagers as they were placed in Tarporley’s shop windows along with other artwork included in the Tarporley Art Trail.
Below we present a selection of the entries, including the winning painting, by Cassian, aged 7 (it’s the 1st picture).
Another year lost! Right now it’s the time for our annual visit to/from Bohars and we should be celebrating with our friends in Bohars. Perhaps next year things will be better? In the meantime here are some photo memories.
The first set are from Brittany than the second set are around Tarporley.
There’s now a whole village noticeboard full of information about our Twinning with Bohars. It’s situated in the centre of Tarporley opposite the Old Fire Station Chocolate Shop. It was intended to tell people about all our plans for 2021, but it’s still worth a look to see the pictures from our recent visits.
A photo will follow soon, but it was rather wet when the posters were put up, and the noticeboard doesn’t have a windscreen wiper!
And here is the photo:
