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SISTER CITY OF LYNCHBURG-PLUS |
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| Volume 3, Issue 1 |
Spring 2003 |
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Board Members, Sister City of Lynchburg- Plus SYLVIANE BELLAMY BERT* BERTOLOTTI FRANK BRITT MEG COSBY MARTHA FAESI JOE FREEMAN BILL GOODMAN CRAIG HOVE HUGH JONES TRAVIS MCDONALD MANFRED MIBUS THERESE NAMENEK SCOTT ROBERT ELLEN ROWLSON-HALL MARI WHITE
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SPRING SOCIAL Join us for a special presentation by Joe Seiffert and Robert and Diane Garber. They will talk about their March trip to Rueil. Come for food, fun and fellowship. |
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"Local Color" Festival May 20 noon to 5 p.m. Downtown Roanoke |
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TRIP TO ITALY Begins at Lake Garda for 3 nights excursions planned to Milan, Verona and Vicenza) On to Venice for 3 nights and then to Cortona in Tuscany. Contact Reed or Lucretia Finlay at 384-6352 or e-mail at Sanpolo95@aol.com |
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| SCI Annual Conference 2003 July 23 to 26 St. Louis | ||||||||||||||
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Meeting with Executive of Sister Cities International
Spread the enthusiasm for the sister city concept via SCHOOL KIDS! This
is the key, according to Cynthia Maka. Go to the schools and get the
kids excited about it. The |
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Our Visit to France In the summer of 2001 a group of French students from Rueil Malmaison
came to Lynchburg for three weeks to study English at Lynchburg College
under the direction of Professor Bruce Mayer. The McDonald family
volunteered to be a host f After Paris we were headed to the Loire Valley. The Glandiers strongly
insisted that we stay with their best friends in Tours, Didier and
Evelyn Guilpains, with a son and daughter close in age to our daughters.
We spent a wonderful time of two days experiencing gourmet meals and
wine treats from their "cave," (or wine cellar). On our way
out of town the Guilpains arranged for a private tour of a winery, in
English, on a Sunday morning. We left the Loire Valley with heavy
hearts. We brightened considerably as we drove past fields of sunflowers en route to Lyons where we visited a third French family, the Vom Scheidts, whom we had known in Lynchburg. For the rest of our trip we were on our own, to the Alps, to St. Tropez, to Nimes, and back to Paris. We could hardly have had a richer experience in our eighteen days in France. It is hard to imagine how much less we would have learned about real French life without our French friends. This was not an official Sister City trip but I believe it is exactly what the Sister City program is all about. The people to people, family to family connection enriched our trip and our lives, and will be a wonderful memory for our daughters. Thank you Sister City program for an incredible exchange of cultures and for helping us make such wonderful new friends. |
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Hello from Rueil and from our Friends! Spring was bursting into bloom when the four of us arrived in Rueil on Thursday, March 12, Joe Seiffert and Robert Garber, both on the City Council, Diane Garber, librarian at LU, and me. The Amis des Jumelages, under the energetic leadership of Claudie Rouzeval had prepared a full and exciting program.
Even though eating and drinking were much appreciated, we got to
actually fill our days with a variety of interesting visits: the newly
inaugurated mediathèque, the City of Rueil with its seven villages, the
historical museum (and what an interesting and rich history Rueil
holds), the "quartier des Impressionists", the Château de
Versailles, Château de la So much to do in so little time! We were touched by the warm and generous hospitality from our sister city friends… Regretfully I had to depart a bit early and left my three Lynchburg friends behind… so there will be more to read in the next issue.
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Forget to pay your membership dues? Your support is very important and helps this organization provide unlimited possibilities and opportunities for groups and individuals throughout Central Virginia to learn more about the world and its people, and to foster friendship and understanding. Please take the time to fill out the form on the back page and mail it in along with your payment. YOUR PARTICIPATION IS MORE IMPORTANT NOW THAN EVER. |
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We publish a newsletter every three months and will include publicity for the Lynchburg Alliance Francaise and the Lynchburg Dante Alighieri Society. Please submit information for the next issue to Craig Hove ( chove@framatech.com )
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On February 20 (one of the few snow-free Thursdays this year!) the
Sister City of Lynchburg-Plus Board met with Cynthia Maka, Assistant
Executive Director, Sister Cities International. Also present were David
Lisk, Executive Director Roanoke Valley Sister Cities, Inc., and Nicole
Yancey, Honorary Consul of France (Virginia).
kids will then get their parents interested
in turn. David Lisk told us that he goes to talk to kids during
"International Day" in Roanoke schools. Frank Britt said there
are lots of low cost school presentations. For example,
"Fifteen
different kinds of pasta" could be the handle of a talk to
introduce Italy to school kids. Cynthia Maka added that another
effective low cost school approach is to teach the kids games specific
to the sister city's country. Cynthia said that it's important for
American kids to travel abroad. Nicole Yancey commented that often
that's unfortunately not a priority for the parents. Nicole Yancey ended
the meeting by noting that the sister city concept is non-political. We
must stress this, she said. The concept is PEOPLE-TO-PEOPLE contact
between two cities.
amily, and we were happy to be assigned a 15
year old French girl. Maeva Glandier was delightful, especially for our
daughters Margot and Madeleine, then aged 12 and 6 respectively. Maeva
quickly became part of our family, teaching French to us as she learned
English. We were sorry to see her go after the quick three weeks. We
soon received a warm letter of thanks from Maeva's parents, Pascal and
Isabelle, who invited us to visit them. We decided to visit France in
the summer of 2002. The experience of staying with the Glandier family
for almost a week was alone worth the trip. They took us to some of
their favorite parts of Paris, showed us around the picturesque downtown
of Rueil, which was only a ten minute walk from their home, and graciously instructed us in the wonderful culture of French meals every
evening on the backyard terrace. In the space of a few days we had made
friends for life and already anticipated future meetings.
For our first lunch we met old friends and new friends at the Maison des
Jumelages's office, right in the heart of the city and later at their
charming little reception hall and cheered our friendship with a glass
(or two...) of champagne and a home-cooked sit-down lunch presented by
les amis. This was the first of many leisurely gatherings around the
table. To mention a few: at the Rouzeval's (Claudie cooked for 13 a
five-course meal with a change of plate
between each course!), a
candle-lit dinner New Orleans style on the "peniche" on the
Seine river, at Café Josephine for a more "official" dinner
(Coq au Vin, etc.) with Louise Baumel, wife of Mayor Jacques Baumel,
Vice Mayor Patrick Ollier, other VIPs and a large group of Jumelages
members (about 50). What a wonderful group of people!
Malmaison, Paris in the Spring (we first
toured by boat along the banks of the Seine river, and by car) and we
discovered this city of pure delight.
