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BBP Newsletter. Welcome to the latest newsletter from the Bristol Bordeaux Partnership (BBP) - the issue for April/May 2026. Today we again reflect on a number of initiatives to promote greater twinning between Bristol and Bordeaux. |
French Film NightWe had a successful film (and nibbles) evening for members and a number of guests from Alliance Francaise, Cercle de France and the Stokes Lodge French lessons group
This month we watched LUCIE AUBRAC based on the book ‘Outwitting the Gestapo, the film deals with true events of the French Resistance round Lyon in the second world war. .
Based on feedback on the night we now hope to run similar French film nights once a quarter from now on.
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Upfest returnsAfter 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; The event starts on May15th and for more detail see the link Upfest 2026.
BBP has be working with Bristol City Council and our partners in Bordeaux to 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 planningAs mentioned last month, 2027 will be the 80th anniversary of Bristol twinning with both Bordeaux and Hannover.
BBP have now been to two meetings at City Hall and will be actively involved in planning the events to celebrate this anniversary. Work is underway to confirm the scope and scale of the planned celebratory events in all three cities . We'll keep you informed of progress as and when it happens.
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 info@bristolbordeaux.org |
Twinning Conference - the future of twinning?
BBP attended the Bristol International Twinning Association’s Regional Conference “City Partnerships in a Changing World” at City Hall, Bristol. There were teams form all over 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
Lots of ideas emerged, particularly focussed on the Youth of the South West and the better use of Social Media.
BBP will be working with Zoe Gibbons at Bristol City Council to see which can be taken forward.. |
The annual BITA Twinning teams' QuizApril saw the annual quiz where the BBP team took on our fellow twinning organisations - Hannover, Oporto, Tiblisi, Guangzhou, Puerto Morazan and Beira - for the dubious honour of twinning quiz champions.
You'll be pleased to know that BBP triumphed on the night !. |
Bristol University students placements in Bordeaux schools
After a hiatus caused by a combination of post Brexit visa rules and some bureaucratic challenges with the Bordeaux school inspections teams we're hopeful - although its very short notice - to be helping to arrange for a small number of Bristol University Language Faculty students to visit Bordeaux in June to assist in local schools for a couple of weeks. (picture is from a previous year's placement) We'll let you know next month if that was achieved and how it went |
Members concertsCOMING EVENT: Thursday 4 June 2026. - Lunchtime Concert. 1.00pm. VENUE: St George’s Concert Hall. Box Office 0117 929 4929 COST: £10.36. Please register interest, or have any queries, with: events@bristolbordeaux.org Programme: Andrew Hamilton & Susan Manoff Schumann Kerner Lieder Ravel Histoires Naturelles
We hope that concerts featuring French artists or composers could be a regular addition to our members’ programme, and if so, we may also organise an evening event in the Autumn.
Although we will all need to buy our own tickets it would be helpful if you can register your interest as we plan to get together for a snack lunch after the concert. Alice Ellerby, Samir Savant’s assistant will reserve a table for us. Costs of a snack lunch currently range from £5.50 to £7.50 and can be ordered in advance online.
Samir, who is the CEO of St George’s, was our guest speaker at the BBP AGM in January 2026 and is a supporter of the twinning. Hope to see you! Gill (Hood), Membership Secretary BBP |
Guild of Guardians visit to Bordeaux
April saw the visit to Bordeaux of The Guild of Guardians., accompanied by the Lord Mayor, Henry Michallat, to help to build further strong links between our 2 cities.
They were all warmly welcomed by the Mairie, the Consulate and by our sister organisation the Association Bordeaux Bristol.
Attached are a couple of screen grabs of the social media posts for the visit from the Lord Mayor himself (@brislodmayor) and from our sister twinning organisation the Association Bordeaux Bristol.(@bdxbris). The Guild are now hoping to visit Hannover and if possible to arrange a reciprocal visit here to Bristol.
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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. 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 |