Friends are not that far away

Written by eklastic

These are the different twinned towns of our hometown and the distance from here to there. There are three French towns because when the several villages joined the town in 1974 two brought their twinned villages/town with them.

Cavaillon (France), Anet (France), Varces Allières et Risset (France), Imola (Italy), Ramat Gan (Israel), and Eisleben (formerly GDR).

Ragtag Daily Prompt: Distance

15 thoughts on “Friends are not that far away”

  1. But do these twinnings DO anything? We here happen to be twinned with a town near to where we lived in France. We tried to get it revived both there and here, but only the signboards exist as a reminder. Nothing happens.

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    1. They do. The first twinning, Cavaillon and Weinheim were twinned in 1958. It was a signal: the “heriditary enemies” France and Germany were making a new beginning. The utopian belief was that people who knew each other personally would never again take up arms against each other (since proven to be false by many conflicts worldwide). But the hope was there. People didn’t travel that much then but slowly contacts were established. At first, it was the mayors etc. but in 1967 a visionary employee of the town council of Weinheim and his French counterpart had an idea. They changed their annual employee outing (a tradition in Germany, sponsored by the employer) to a biennal long weekend visiting in Cavaillon, with the French employees visiting in Germany in the other years. Friendships were formed. An appreciation of the other culture was created (e.g. dustmen, nurses, swimming pool lifeguards, cemetery workers, clerks, secretaries etc. — people who didn’t habitually travel to the South of France without knowledge of the others’ language). Clubs went for mutual visits. Youngsters were shipped off to corresponding families and the next generation actually spoke French and German, respectively. When my father died (said visionary) in the middle of summer in 1980, people travelled the 1000km from Cavaillon to come to his funeral. And since then family ties have been created through weddings (and meanwhile grandkids). – I’m not so involved in the Italian twinning but I know that there are quite often contacts with Ramat Gan in Israel, with people visiting (working on healing the complicated history) and with help organised for the town in the current conflict.

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      1. That’s brilliant. Where we lived in Sothern France, there was an active twinning wit a town in Brittany. We thought that odd, but participated anyway. And it wasn’t ofd at all. Swapping northern and southern ideas, food and customs, as well as enjoying the differences between Celtic and Occitan culture made for fun and even eye-opening weekends. It’s a shame it doesn’t happen more often. It has to be said, however, that all participants were not in the first flush of youth.

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      2. And probably all volunteers (youngsters have jobs). But it’s a problem with many clubs and organisations. They rely on volunteers, so they get “oldies” and youngsters are not drawn to spend their time with said oldies.

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      1. Some other places could have European twinning. South Australia has a German connection centred around Handorf, originally established in 1839 by Prussian Lutherans and maintains a rich German-Australian heritage.

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