Dear SHTA Members & Friends,

For those who like sunshine and warm weather May has started in ideal fashion with comparable temperatures to the French Riviera. You may well agree that more of the same (with a good dose of rainfall during the night!) wouldn’t go amiss. This is a busy time for events, both here and across the Channel. With news of the latter here’s Mark Moorhouse’s regular introduction to the Newsletter:

In Honfleur, Normandy and France:

May is the month of the Eurovision Song Contest – not an event that usually gets a mention in our Newsletter, however this year there is a tenuous link between the SHTA and the competition final in Basel, Switzerland. Our January film ‘La Famille Bélier’, featured an actress / singer named Louane Emera, or simply, Louane (real name Anne Edwige Maria Peichert) who is representing France. Her entry ‘Maman’ was presented for the first occasion during half-time of the Six Nations Rugby Tournament match between France and Scotland on Saturday 15th March with Louane singing live in front of an audience of over 80,000 at the Stade de France in Paris.

Also on Saturday 17th May is the The European Night of Museums. This is a nationwide UNESCO-backed initiative where museums across France remain open, free of charge, to visitors until midnight supported by the French Ministry of Culture. The country’s finest cultural offerings can be in an entirely new light, quite literally, and is a whole new museum experience.

More local to Honfleur, The CIC Normandy Channel Race is one of the nautical highlights of the year. Starting from Caen on Sunday 25 May 2025, skippers will embark on a spectacular 1,000 mile race in their Class 40 Yachts to England and Éire. The route begins at Ouistreham. From Caen, the sailors will take the Canal de l’Orne towards the stormy waters of the English Channel.

Before reaching the Isle of Wight, the skippers will make a detour via the ÎlesSaint-Marcouf, opposite the Manche coast, the Utah Beach sector of the Allied D-Day Landings in 1944. They will then sail around Tuskar Rock and Fastnet Rock to the south of Eire, marking the return to Normandy and the home port of Caen. The final leg will be a sporting challenge, with a passage through Guernsey and then into the currents of the Raz-Blanchard, one of the strongest in Europe, off the Goury Lighthouse (Phare de Goury / Phare de la Hague).

Many thanks, as usual, to Vice-Chair, Mark Moorhouse, for the introduction above.

What’s happening in the Sandwich Honfleur Twinning Association?

First up in May is this month’s film entitled ‘Coup de Chance’ which we’ll be screening at the Empire Cinema on Wednesday 14th May. After three films from the 60’s and 70’s, SHTA’s final two cinema nights will see a return to the 21st Century. ‘Coup de Chance’ (English title: ‘Stroke of Luck’) is a 2023 comedy drama-thriller, written and directed by Woody Allen, and starring Lou de Laâge, Valérie Lemercier, Melvil Poupaud and Niels Schneider. The plot involves a young woman bumping into an old high school friend who confesses that he has always had a crush on her; their subsequent lunch meetings, in secret from her possessive businessman husband, lead slowly to a beginning of an affair.

On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an approval rating of 83% based on 89 reviews. The website’s critics consensus reads, “Woody Allen’s 50th film, Coup de Chance adds yet another creative rebound to the writer-director’s oeuvre with a charming thriller”. The film’s run time is 93 minutes and it has a PG classification.

As usual, if you’d like to reserve your place for our film in May 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.

The remaining film for our 2024-2025 season will be on Wednesday 11th June: a romantic-comedy-drama, ‘Va Savoir’ is a film directed by Jacques Rivette, and entered into the Cannes Film Festival of 2001. The story of the three couples in the film has two principals who perform each night and follows the structure of a Goldoni comedy, in which couples undergo misunderstandings and attraction for others until the final resolution.

As mentioned last month, we’d like to thank all of you who suggested film titles for the 2024-2025 season and invite you to do the same for our 2025-2026 programme. As you know, we try to include a full range including some new and some from the past; historical, comedy, romantic, mystery and drama. Many thanks in advance if you’re able to contribute.

The beautiful coastal town of Étretat is on the itinerary for the group travelling to Honfleur this year. Above is a photo of Patricia and Jocelyn Lefranc either side of Sandra Jones with the beach, arch and stack behind, just a few of the main attractions of the town.

Later this month there is an important date to note for those of you on this year’s trip to Honfleur: the Pre-Visit Meeting onWednesday 21st May which we’ll be holding from 7.00 pm – 8.00 pm at St Mary’s Arts Centre. The meeting will be an opportunity for those in the group to meet each other, go over the itinerary and to ask questions. Please do let me know at your earliest convenience if you’re unable to attend.

Thanks very much, by the way, for completing your payments by the end of April for the trip. At the meeting we hope to be able to let participants know with whom they’ll be staying in Honfleur for the four days, so, with preparations for the trip going ahead, the next few weeks promise to be very exciting!

Prior to this year’s Trip to Honfleur and our June film, Sandwich will be doing its annual impersonation of a French town on Saturday 7th and Sunday 8th June Le Weekend ’s new organiser, Mark Moorhouse, would appreciate any help that SHTA members can offer towards a successful couple of days. If you think you’d be able to assist in organisation in advance or during the weekend itself, please do contact Mark or one of the SHTA Committee. In particular, Mark asks if you’d be able to help with the following:

• Can you co-ordinate a window dressing competition ?
• Do you know of anyone who may have access to French foods which are imported and stored this side of The Channel – thus avoiding the post Brexit restrictions on bringing food which is not for personal consumption into the UK ?
• Do you know of anyone who may produce French style craft products and is looking for an additional means of selling their work ?

• We seek assistance with setting up Market Street  – specifically with assembly of the stage along with putting out tables and chairs.
• Would you be interested in being our music host / hostess / master of ceremonies in Market Street ? 

On Mark’s behalf, a big thank you in advance if you’re able to lend your support to such a highlight of the year for the Town.

As far as SHTA’s own stall during Le Weekend is concerned, we would very much appreciate your help also. If you think you’d be able to spend one hour or even two hours on the stall promoting the Association and doing your best to recruit new members, please let Committee member Christine Ratcliffe know via the contact details at the end of this newsletter, letting her know which of the two days and which time you’d prefer. The stall will be open between 10.00 am and 4.00 pm on both Saturday and Sunday. Thank you.

If you like an open-air chat with friends over a bite to eat and a drink, you’ll enjoy an addition to the SHTA programme that you’ll have seen on our website: we plan to have a Picnic on the Quay Green (which we have done several times in the past) on Monday 7th July from 12.00 noon onwards. If you’re free on that day, why not come along for an hour or so with your picnic and perhaps a deckchair?

Towards the end of July the traditional SHTA Bangers & Boules Tournament will take place this year on Thursday 24th July at The Anchor Pub in Wingham, starting at 6.00 pm. The games will be followed by a meal inside the pub which includes sausages & mash with onion gravy and seasonal vegetables (or vegetarian option), followed by crumble or sorbet. Cost for the meal is £20. Many thanks if you’ve already signed up for this; there are now only a few places remaining, so do contact me if you’d like to be included.

As you’ll have read in the last two newsletters, we have a change of venue for this year’s SHTA Christmas Dinner & Party: this year it will be held at The Bell Hotel in Sandwich on Thursday 11th December. The upstairs dining room will be devoted solely to our SHTA group and can cater for 60-70 people. We’ve made a healthy start on the numbers so far, but plenty of competing offers may tempt you elsewhere at that time of year, so, to avoid disappointment, why not sign up asap if you’d like to attend please.

That’s all the news for now; we look forward to seeing as many of you as possible at the Empire Cinema on Wednesday 14th May.

Best wishes, Stuart, Mark and the Committee.

2024-2025 Sandwich Honfleur Twinning Association Committee