BBP Newsletter March 2026: Lucie Aubrac, Upfest, 80th Anniversary, Academie You n Us, Future of Twinning

BBP Newsletter.

Welcome to the latest newsletter from the Bristol Bordeaux Partnership (BBP) - the issue for March 2026. Today we reflect on a number of initiatives to promote greater twinning between Bristol and Bordeaux.

Our next French Film Night

NEXT FILM: LUCIE AUBRAC, 1 hour 51 minutes, based on the book ‘Outwitting the Gestapo, the film deals with true events of the French Resistance round Lyon in the second world war. English subtitles.

VENUE: Symonds Restaurant, Audley Redwood, Beggar Bush Lane, Failand BS8 3DZ. Visitor car parking, spaces usually available. Turn left on entry, park in the Visitors car park, then follow signs for Reception.

TIME: Doors open at 6.30pm for 7.00pm start

COST: £5, payable on the door, to include small snack of bread and cheese. Bar open until 8.00pm

Please register with info@bristolbordeaux.org  as we need to let the kitchen know numbers in advance for catering

Upfest returns

After missing a couple of years, the good news is that Upfest returns to Bristol this May (picture from the last event) . Upfest is Europe's largest street art festival; for more detail see the link Upfest 2026

BBP will be working with Bristol City Council and our partners in Bordeaux to hopefully arrange the visit to Bristol of some of Bordeaux's finest street artists (and no doubt our fellow twinning teams for Bristol's other twinned cities will be doing the same) .

Our Twinning's 80th anniversary planning

Did you know that 2027 will be the 80th anniversary of Bristol twinning with both Bordeaux and Hannover.

BBP have been to one initial meeting at City Hall and will be actively involved in planning the events to celebrate this anniversary..

BBP will certainly be working with City Hall and our Bordeaux ABB partners to arrange visits between the 2 cities as part of the celebrations. If you're interested in visiting Bordeaux in 2027, pencil in the weekend of July 9th/10th as that is the planned date (it coincides with the 2027 Fete le Vin). And if you are interested in helping to arrange any aspects of the trip to Bordeaux of for the visit of our Bordelais friends to Bristol, please let Mark Packham know on mark.packham003@gmail.com

One of the working Group's first tasks will be to agree scope, a logo and a lcommunications strategy for all of the anniversary events across Bristol Bordeaux and Hannover.

We'll keep you informed of progress as and when it happens.

Twinning Conference - the future of twinning?

BBP will be at Bristol International Twinning Association’s Regional Conference “City Partnerships in a Changing World” on Wednesday April 29th at City Hall, Bristol.

In a world full of conflict, the conference emphasises the value of solidarity between citizens of other countries at grass roots level. People involved in twinning will be coming from the wider South West to exchange views, experiences and ideas for the future, together with two great keynote speakers: Heather Law from Birmingham City Council's International Affairs, on Empowering the Next Generation of Women Leaders and Dr Carl Wright Chair of the European Local Links group and former Secretary General of the Commonwealth Local Government Forum, on New Agendas for City Partnerships.

We'll update you on what ideas emerged from the day and how BBP may be able to take them forwqrd.

The annual BITA Twinning teams' Quiz

April will see the annual quiz where the BBP team take on our fellow twinning organisations - Hannover, Oporto, Tiblisi, Guangzhou, Puerto Morazan and Beira - for the dubious honour of twinning quiz champions.

We'll let you how we got on in the next newsletter.

Academie You N Us

March saw the visit to Bristol of a team from Academie You N Us form Bordeaux together with a group of very enthusiastic Bordeaux school children.

BBP were really happy to accompany the children and the team from Academie YouNUs to City Hall and to meet with and question the Lord Mayor. They asked some very interesting questions.

Our own Bordelais Thomas Sanchis was also able to give a presentation (in French of course) to the children explaining twinning in general and BBP in particular.

Members concerts

Working with Samir Savant, CEO of St Georges, we hope to instigate a periodic members visit to St George's for one of their lunchtime concerts , particularly those with a French connection.

The first of these is likely to be on Thursday June 4th. If you are interested please let Gill Hood know on info@bristolbordeaux.org

Guild of Guardians visit to Bordeaux

Following on from the visit to Bordeaux in 2026 of the Bristol Junior Chamber of Commerce , April sees the visit to Bordeaux of The Guild of Guardians. They will be accompanied by the Lord Mayor, Henry Michallat to help to build further strong links between our 2 cities.

They will be welcomed by the Mairie, the Consulate and by our sister organisation the Association Bordeaux Bristol.

We'll let you know how the visit went.in future newsletters.

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.

And finally, as always we hope to see many of you in 2026 and to hear of your ideas for how to increase twinning activities between Bristol and Bordeaux..

A bientôt!

On behalf of Mike Healey (Chair of BBP) for Bristol Bordeaux Partnership

www.bristolbordeaux.org