Dear SHTA Friends,
You may or may not be one of those people who tries to trick, deceive, make a fool of, or just generally have a bit of fun with a friend on April Fool’s Day. I’m sure we can all remember having been the victim or the perpetrator of such pranks at some time in the past. Taking a group of school students around Versailles many years ago, I was duped into walking around for a couple of hours with a paper fish
attached to my back, totally oblivious to the sniggers and titters!
This month was significant in France fifty-one years ago when 68% of the country voted in favour, through a referendum, of admitting the UK, Ireland and Denmark to the Common Market. And a generation or so further on …
Narrowing down to our own twin-town of Honfleur, a couple of events this April draw one’s attention:
(i) St John’s Voices – France, are performing at St Catherine’s Church from 15th – 21st April;
(ii) ‘Le Salon du Vin’ takes place from 14th – 16th April in the Rue de la Ville.
Here’s a description from ‘Normandy Tourism’: “The members of the Association of the Friends of the Baron Motard (in homage to the Baron of the Empire and benefactor of Honfleur) once again invite you to meet them on the quay, Jetée de l’Est, for the 9th edition of the Wine Show. The main ambition of these enlightened wine lovers is to introduce and discover the wine regions of France represented by the fifty or so independent winegrowers present.The different vintages reflecting the colours of our ‘terroirs’ thus benefit from the exceptional setting of the ‘Greniers à Sel’. Around tastings, the public is invited to share a convivial moment of exchange on the trade and the soil of these passionate men. A glass (with the coat of arms of the City of Honfleur) for the tasting is on sale at the entrance of the exhibition.”
Purely by coincidence, at the very same time, this latter event in Honfleur has its counterpart in many ways in Sandwich when SHTA holds its own first Cheese & Wine Pairing & Quiz on Saturday 15th April. There are still some places available for what promises to be a fun and interesting evening. You’ll be treated to a glass of wine on arrival and then 3 white wines and 3 red wines to sample along with 6 different cheeses, all French, of course. The idea is for participants to decide which wine best suits which cheese. There will also be a couple of brief table quizzes to try. It all takes place from 7.00 pm at St Clement’s Hall in Sandwich.
Naturally, there will be prizes to be won, and I haven’t even mentioned yet the raffle!
The cost per head for all of that is a mere £20.
If you’d like to join those who’ve already signed up, either to enlighten your taste buds, make some new friends or to catch up with some familiar faces, please contact Steve Thomson (contact details at the end of this newsletter) or send me an email. Obviously, someone will be going home with the deluxe top raffle prize!
The seating area downstairs at The Empire Cinema was full last month when we screened ‘Le Château De Ma Mère’. A delighted audience saw the Provence- inspired film, based on the youth of Marcel Pagnol. April’s film from SHTA is called ‘Des Vents Contraires’, directed by Jalil Lespert, starring Benoît Magimel and Audrey Tautou, and released in 2011. We will be showing the film on Wednesday 19th April; the film has a 15+ rating and a runtime of 91 minutes. Here’s a synopsis from ‘frenchfilms’:
“Paul Anderen, a writer living in Paris, has his life turned upside down when his wife Sarah suddenly goes missing. After a year of fruitless searching, Paul is a broken man. His only hope is to try and start a new life with his two young children in Saint- Malo, the town in Brittany where he grew up. His older brother gives him a job as an instructor in his driving school and he is soon pursuing an affair with a younger
woman. Just when Paul appears to be getting his life back on track he starts receiving anonymous phone calls. He persuades the police to reopen the case into his missing wife …”
If you’d like to come along to see the April film, as usual, send an email to Jan Cooper on jannicooper@icloud.com and ask her to reserve you a seat. As always, the cinema doors will open at 7.00 for a 7.30 pm start; the cost per head is £7.50 and can be paid in advance online, or on the night either by card or in cash.
A reminder of our May and June film titles:
Wed. 17th May: ‘Les Femmes Du 6ème Étage’
Wed. 14th June: ‘L’École Buissonnière’
Some further dates for your diary are:
Pique-nique on the Quay on Monday 22nd May at 1.00 pm.
Bangers & Boules on Thursday 27th July
Group Visit to Honfleur 23rd – 26th June.
‘Le Week-end’ on Saturday 10th & Sunday 11th June.
There will be more detail on the four events above in subsequent newsletters, so do
watch this space.
That’s all the news for now, so we look forward to seeing you at one or more of our forthcoming events.
Happy Easter. Best wishes, Stuart & the Committee