In Honfleur, Normandy and France:

On Saturday 12th and Sunday 13th October Honfleur hosts the 29ème édition de La Fête de la Crevette et de la Pêche. This annual event is one of France’s best-known food festivals. The shrimp is the star of the show at this traditional festival and the local speciality, Crevette Grise is celebrated along with the town’s maritime culture through performances of sea shanties, an arts and crafts market and cooking demonstrations of local fish recipes. The display of fishing boats along the Vieux Bassin will delight visitors

30 miles from Honfleur and close to Les Jardins du Pays d’Auge lies Beuvron-en-Auge (one of the most beautiful villages in the Département du Calvados) which hosts its annual Cider Festival on Saturday 19th and Sunday 20th October.Apple Juice, Cider, Calvados and Pommeau lead the proceedings at this popular event – head to the village square and watch the cider connoisseurs press the apples, taste apple juice straight off the press, browse local produce at the many market stalls and enjoy the French equivalent of Morris dancing !

Many thanks to Vice-Chair, Mark Moorhouse, for the piece above.

What’s happening in the Sandwich Honfleur Twinning Association?

Nearer to home, October is shaping up to be quite a busy month for members of SHTA:

1) Tuesday 15th October sees 40 of us holding a meeting at St Mary’s Arts Centre, assembling at 7.15 pm; the meeting concerns our forthcoming visit by 43 guests from Honfleur, our twin town. At the meeting our hosts will be finding out about the itinerary for the 4-days, along with details of the planned activities during the visit.

2) The following day, Wednesday 16th October, all SHTA members are invited to the Empire Cinema Sandwich where we shall be showing ‘Borsalino’, starring Alain Delon, one of the all-time greats of French cinema, who sadly died only two months ago aged 88.

‘Borsalino’ is a 1970 French gangster film directed by Jacques Deray and starring Jean-Paul Belmondo, Alain Delon and Catherine Rouvel. It was entered into the 20th Berlin International Film Festival. In 2009, Empire named it No. 19 in a poll of “The 20 Greatest Gangster Movies You’ve Never Seen… Probably”.

Robbers, Capella and Siffredi, join forces when they meet brawling over a woman. After doing small-time robberies and betting, they decide to start their own business and their level of crime raises. The film is based on real-life gangsters Paul Carbone and François Spirito, who collaborated with Nazi Germany during the occupation of France in World War II. The film runs for 125 minutes and carries a “R” certification.

If you’d like to reserve your place for next Wednesday please send me an email on stuartpjones100@yahoo.co.uk. Admission to film nights remains at £7.50 per head and priority will be given to members who book in advance. You can pay in advance online to SHTA, account number: 42027168; sort code: 30-90-09. Alternatively, you can pay by cash or card on the night at the cinema.

Without threatening to send our own gangsters round if you haven’t yet paid your annual SHTA Subscription, due by the end of September, could I please ask you to pay your £12.50 as soon as you’re able to, after which you will receive your Member’s Card for 2024-2025with all the dates for the year and contact details.

3) Thursday 31st October – Sunday 3rd November are the dates for the Biennial Visit by the Honfleur Group to Sandwich. If you are hosting a guest/guests from our twin town, the Committee would like to send you a big thank you in advance. The matching-up process has now been finalised; our list of names and details goes to Honfleur this week, and the exact itinerary and programme of events for the four days are close to completion.

The Honfleur and Sandwich groups combined will be getting together for two big events during the visit: the first is a Halloween-themed Dinner & Party at St Mary’s Arts Centre on Friday 1st November starting at 7.00 pm. A professional band and local singer will accompany a three-course meal, while SHTA hosts will be performing a couple of ‘scary’ songs (interpret that as you will!); the 2nd event is an ‘explosive evening of enchantment and thrill’ (their words not mine!) at the Quex Park Fireworks & Bonfire on Saturday 2nd November, arriving 5.30 pm.

If you’re not hosting anyone from Honfleur but would like to be involved as SHTA members in either of these events, please let me know by Wednesday 16th October, the date of this month’s film night. We’d love to see you at either occasion when you might perhaps meet some previous Honfleur acquaintances, or simply find out what’s involved in one of these exchange visits. SHTA will cover your costs for your evening at St Mary’s or your ticket for Quex Park.

What’s taking place beyond the Visit?

1) Our film for November features the other half of the ‘acting royalty’ of the golden era of French cinema, Jean-Paul Belmondo. We’ll be screening ‘Un Singe en Hiver’ on Wednesday 13th November, starring Belmondo and Jean Gabin.

2) The Sandwich Christmas Lights Switch-On is on Saturday 30th November, the day we hold our Vin Chaud stand in the Guildhall Forecourt. It always provides an opportunity to promote the Association, meet other Sandwich residents and visitors to the town and recruit new members.

3) A reminder for you that the SHTA Christmas Dinner & Party will again this year be at Tan Bueno Restaurant in Sandwich on Thursday 5th December. Now that we’re well into Autumn, you might like to attend to this to guarantee your place and avoid any clashes with other events at this time of the year.

That’s all the news of upcoming events. Committee members have discussed a new feature for inclusion in the Newsletter which will be a slot towards the end for any members to send in an article, a photo, a piece of topical news or something of your own choice, after which comments or observations from other members are invited.

To kick things off, here is a poem I’ve picked appropriate for this time of year:

Chanson d’automne by Paul Verlaine (1844-1896)

This is a classic of French poems that every French person knows from having memorised and studied it in school. The nostalgia of the Autumn season inspired Verlaine to liken the falling rain to his tears, and to personify the season by mentioning the “long sobs of Autumn’s violins” as a reflection of Verlaine’s own melancholy, despairing mood. The short, not quite regular lines mimic the rhythm of the rain, and add to the revolving, merry-go-round feeling that a woeful mood can bring.

Chanson d’automne
Les sanglots longs
Des violons
De l’automne
Blessent mon coeur
D’une langueur
Monotone.

Tout suffocant
Et blême, quand
Sonne l’heure,
Je me souviens
Des jours anciens
Et je pleure;
Et je m’en vais

Au vent mauvais
Qui m’emporte
Deçà, delà,
Pareil à la
Feuille morte.

Autumn Song
(translated by Arthur Symons)

When a sighing begins
In the violins
Of the autumn-song,
My heart is drowned
In the slow sound
Languorous and long

Pale as with pain,
Breath fails me when
The hours toll deep.
My thoughts recover
The days that are over,
And I weep.

And I go
Where the winds know,
Broken and brief,
To and fro,
As the winds blow
A dead leaf.

Looking forward to seeing our Honfleur hosts next Tuesday at St Mary’s and as many of you as possible at the Empire Cinema next Wednesday for ‘Borsalino’.

Best wishes from Stuart, Mark and the Committee