“Aujourd’hui on va à la plage” – a jaunty ditty that featured heavily in our children’s French homework 25 years ago, returned from somewhere deep in my brain to accompany me on the splendid Knebworth Twinning weekend we spent in Châtelaillon-Plage. Martha and I joined the Knebworth delegation at La Fête du Jumelage and paraded up the beautiful seaside town’s main street to the brilliant accompaniment of the Knebworth Primary School Drummers – what a credit to Knebworth they were!
Knebworth was celebrated the length of the parade route with all things British and all things Knebworth, including, from our end of the village, giant images of Knebworth House, Knebworth House Garden’s Dinosaurs, Knebworth Park’s rock heritage and – a backcloth to fine dance performances to Queen’s “We Will Rock You” and Robbie Williams’ “Angels” by enthusiastic locals of all ages – a giant Cobbold coat-of-arms featuring my grandfather’s two labradors. We were treated like royalty – in the English sense, perhaps, rather than the French! (No guillotine at the end of the parade.) Although it is the case that Châtelaillon’s region, Poitou-Charentes, is historically more royalist than the rest of France, and of course once-upon-a-time was ruled by English kings.
The very warm and welcoming Mayor of Châtelaillon, however, spoke no English at all, so, sat next to him at some very generous and deliciously creamy dinners, I had to call on my O-Level French from 50 years ago. I did my best to make conversation more interesting than what ‘Pierre’ and ‘Françoise’ got up to in my 1970s French Textbook – days spent at school, visits to the farm and the zoo… although I am grateful ‘Pierre’ and ‘Françoise’ did, usefully, spend their vacances à la plage! Required – and keen – to honour the Mayor with a gracious thank you speech in French I was thankfully coached by our excellent Knebworth delegation leader Rob Smith (who along with Ann Judge, Ruth Burr and all the KTA team are owed huge thanks for the brilliant organisation of this very special weekend) and managed it with sufficient Inspector Clouseau accent to receive polite applause from the assembled French, although of course it did help to end with some trusted Franglais, “C’était un weekend superb!”
Henry Lytton Cobbold
HenryCobboldKH
