After the twinning in the Spring and a "Summer Party" this summer, this was the first time that Paris II went to the meeting of our UK friends in numbers. We were a party of 21 with wives.

On our arrival by Eurostar at Saint Pancras, we were taken in hand by the President of Wimbledon, Peter Tennant and his Vice President Graham Hunter.
To celebrate our arrival, the sun came out from behind the clouds providing us with a day of sunshine.
After leaving our baggage at Waterloo station and a brief breakfast we passed over Waterloo Bridge, turning our backs on Trafalgar Square.
(How the British should thank us for giving such evocative names to their monuments!).
Graham gave the commentary of our tour which took us first to the "Courtauld Gallery”, a museum endowed with a magnificent collection of paintings from the Renaissance period to the 20th Century. But it is above all famous for its Impressionist Collection. We were able to admire notably "La Loge" of Renoir, one of Cezanne's paintings of the "Card Player” and of the "Sainte Victoire" Mountain, the bar de "La Folie Bergeres" of Manet as well as the self portrait of Van Gogh with his missing ear and a nude by Mogdialani. Other artists represented were Degas, Seurat, Gauguin and Rubens (several paintings).

After lunch in one of the oldest pubs in London, we discovered the house of Samuel
Johnson, famous writer, of which the 300th anniversary of his birth is celebrated this year.
It was in this house that he wrote over a period of several years 'The Dictionary of the
English Language', considered for a long time to be the most important British work of
its kind.
With evening approaching our British friends accompanied us to our hotel.
The day ended with a very friendly dinner among our Wimbledon friends.

The following day's programme took us to lunch at Brian Cooper's, member of the Womblers Club.

It is to be noted that our host has a vineyard on the premises. Yes! There are vines in England. We were able to appreciate both his white and red wines. We should have also picked the grapes, but the harvesting was postponed by light rain in the morning. Nevertheless, Brian was happy to explain the vinification process.

Lunch at less than 20 metres from a vineyard, 10 kilometres from London! Who in the 41 Club in the 13th Region of France has had such an opportunity.

It is with regret and the desire to see each other again soon that we left our friends, Peter and Graham took us back to the station.

At our arrival at the Gare du Nord, we were left with the memory of a wonderful weekend, of the welcome we received from our British friends, of the will to strengthen the friendship. Our next meeting is already scheduled for the end of May and our Rallye.

Many, many thanks to our English friends with special thanks to Peter Tennant and Graham Hunter who were always there to guide us. Many thanks to Brian also for welcoming us at his home.

Assuredly, the chain of friendship can only be reinforced.

41 Friends - you too can appreciate the wealth of twinning.

Thierry Laquerbe, Paris II

After a successful twinning ceremony in Paris in March, Wimbledon 41 Club hosted a weekend in London for their new French friends.

A guided tour around part of London with lunch in one of the oldest pubs was followed by a dinner in a local hostelry.
The highlight of the weekend was a visit to a vineyard owned by one of Wimbledon's members. The Paris members were amazed to see vines growing in London and were surprised at the quality of the wine produced.