BBP's Vivien Brown gets the Lord Mayor's MedalVivien Brown, our Deputy Chair for many years, has recently been awarded the Lord Mayor's medal for her international work supporting Bristol. We see her regularly in her work with Bordeaux, and she also works with the Bristol International Twinning Association, BITA. Having known the Bordeaux community for many years, and speaking French fluently, Vivien is always ready to build the links between our cities, especially through her wide range of contacts at the Association Bordeaux Bristol. She brings warmth and selfless dedication to our conversations with Bordeaux, both in phone / video links and during citizen visits between the cities. Vivien has steadily put in the hard ‘behind the scenes’ work year after year. Her efforts are essential to our work with Bristol communities as well as the alumni from Bristol Bordeaux school exchanges going back many decades. She has a heartfelt desire to do her best in all circumstances that translates into the best for all concerned and is an outstanding voluntary ambassador internationally for the City of Bristol. Well deserved recognition! Thank you Vivien. |
Members trip to Paris and BordeauxAfter the few updates about deferring the visit to Paris and Bordeaux, we have now confirmed the proposed visit to Paris to see the restored Notre Dame. We are looking at going out from Bristol on Wednesday 8th October, with the visit to the Cathedral on the 9th. Members would then have the opportunity to continue on to Bordeaux by train for the weekend. Of course, some members may prefer to make different arrangements but we aim to have a group visit to the Cathedral with a meal either beforehand or afterwards, depending on the time of the visit. We also hope our French friends from the Association Bordeaux Bristol will be able to join us. We will share updates each month. |
BITA Quiz NightBBP took on our colleagues in the annual quiz between the 7 Bristol twinning associations - the teams who manage the relationships with Bristol's twinned cities of Bordeaux, Hannover, Tiblisi, Porto, Guangzhou, Beira and Puerto Morazan. We were also joined by Zoe Gibbons, Bristol City Council's International Twinning Officer and Andrew Varney, The Lord Mayor of Bristol. And without wishing to blow our own trumpet too loudly - BBP won - and we were presented with the cup by the Lord Mayor himself! The only downside is that BBP now need to host and set the questions for next year's quiz. |
French Film NightNext event: Film night Friday 16th May at the Bristol Commonwealth Society, 14 Whiteladies Road, Clifton, Bristol BS8 1PD. 7.00pm for 7.15pm start, bar available, card payment preferred. Film: La Gloire de Mon Père, length 106 mins. Gill will give a short introduction to the film. For registration and details of how to pay, contact Gill Hood: gannahd1@outlook.com |
Bristol and Bordeaux Commercial twinningSince our last update, Connor Jones, Vice President of Bristol Junior Chamber of Commerce, has confirmed that at least 5 members of Bristol's thriving commercial community will be visiting Bordeaux this October. The intention is to foster closer links between the Chambers of Commerce of both Bristol and Bordeaux, in line with the aims of formal Memorandum of Understanding between the two cities. We will update you on progress in future newsletters. |
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We hope that these updates on the recent activities of BBP are of interest and may even prompt you to want to become more involved and to help us with some of these initiatives. If you want to know more, please reply to this email. We'd love to be able to spread the message re twinning in general and Bristol's links with Bordeaux in particular.
A bientôt! Mike Healey (Chair of BBP) and Mark Atherton (Secretary) for Bristol Bordeaux Partnership www.bristolbordeaux.org |