Dear SHTA Members and Friends,

A very Happy New Year to you and we hope that you’ll have a peaceful and enjoyable 2026 during which you might be able to participate in a range of activities organised by SHTA. To start the year in style with an insight into some topical aspects of culture on the other side of the Channel below is an introduction by our Vice-Chair, Mark Moorhouse:

In Honfleur, Normandy and France

No doubt members will be aware of the passing of Brigitte Bardot in Saint Tropez on 28th December. Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot was born in Paris on 28th September 1934 and was an actress, model, and singer who became a global icon and symbol of the 1950s sexual revolution, best known for her role in And God Created Woman which launched her international stardom. After retiring from the film industry in 1973, she dedicated her life to animal rights activism, establishing the Brigitte Bardot Foundation and campaigning against animal cruelty, though her later life was marked by controversy over her right-wing political views and controversial statements. 

Early Life & Rise to Fame

• Born and raised in the 15th Arrondissement of Paris (Vaugirard), she trained as a ballerina before becoming a teenage model, appearing on Elle magazine’s cover.
• She married director Roger Vadim, who cast her in And God Created Woman (1956), a film that defined her image as a carefree, sensual icon. 

Film Career & Icon Status

• She starred in numerous films, including The Truth, Contempt, and Viva Maria!, showcasing versatility and becoming a major pop culture figure.
• Her provocative on-screen persona, while cementing her stardom, also frustrated her desire to be seen as a serious actress. 

Retirement & Activism

• Bardot left the entertainment industry in 1973 at age 39.
• She famously declared she gave her youth to men and her wisdom to animals, founding her animal rights foundation to fight animal cruelty, particularly against horse slaughter, fur, and bullfighting. 

Controversies

• Her later years involved public criticism and convictions for inciting racial hatred due to comments on immigration and Islam.
• She also faced backlash for homophobic remarks and her perceived dismissal of the #MeToo movement. 

NEW YEAR’S EVE & NEW YEAR IN FRANCE

France celebrates New Year’s Eve (La Saint-Sylvestre) with a focus on conviviality, great food, and festive gatherings, with big cities like Paris hosting major public events and smaller towns enjoying intimate home celebrations : –

• The Feast (Le Réveillon): A gourmet, multi-course dinner with luxury foods such as foie gras, caviar, oysters, smoked salmon, and duck, paired with fine wines and champagne.
• Parties: Celebrations range from intimate home dinners to large “soirées dansantes” (dance parties) or “soirées déguisées” (costume parties).
• Midnight: A countdown to midnight with champagne toasts, fireworks, singing, and shouting “Bonne Année !” (Happy New Year).
• Kissing: It’s traditional to kiss cheeks (faire la bise) and exchange wishes, often under mistletoe, symbolising good fortune.
• Paris: The Champs-Elysées hosts huge crowds for fireworks and light shows at the Arc de Triomphe, with free public transport available. 

New Year’s Day (Le Jour de l’An) often starts quietly, with people taking frosty walks or enjoying family time. It is traditional to offer token gifts (étrennes) to service workers such as postal carriers, cleaners, and concierge, as well as for children from relatives. Sending New Year’s cards throughout January is also a custom. 

CLAUDE MONET

2026 marks the centennial of Claude Monet’s passing on 5 December 1926 in Giverny. A true icon of the Impressionist Movement, Monet painted more than 2,000 works that continue to travel the world and captivate audiences nearly a century later. From Impression, Sunrise – the painting that gave Impressionism its name — to the Rouen Cathedral series, and the legendary ‘Les étangs aux nénuphars’ (Water Lilies), Monet’s masterpieces are inseparable from the landscapes of Normandy and the Paris Region. To commemorate this centennial, these two regions will present an exceptional programme of events throughout the year. The celebration offers the opportunity to (re)discover Monet’s works, his homes, and the landscapes that inspired him — from Paris to the Normandy coast, through picturesque towns, enchanting gardens, and the light-filled banks of the Seine.

Born in Paris in 1840, Claude Monet found his first source of inspiration in Normandy. In Le Havre, under the guidance of Eugène Boudin, he discovered outdoor painting and the richness of the region’s ever-changing coastal lights. In 1859, he returned to Paris to begin his career. Seeking new motifs and more affordable places to live, he left the French capital in 1871 for nearby villages. In Argenteuil, Vétheuil, and Bougival, he captured the rhythms of modern life along the River Seine.

From 1883 onward, Monet settled permanently in Giverny, where he created his ultimate masterpiece: a garden that became iconic, immortalised in the Water Lilies series. From this picturesque Normandy village, he continued his artistic explorations in Rouen, on the cliffs of Étretat, and around Dieppe.

In tribute to Monet’s legacy, Normandy and the Paris Region will host over 100 events between March and December 2026. Major temporary exhibitions will be staged in Impressionist museums across both regions. Unusual tours, river cruises, concerts, lectures, and open-air culinary events will celebrate Monet’s enduring influence. Highlights are already planned in Giverny, Vernon, Rouen, Honfleur, Le Havre, Paris, and along the River Seine.

Reimagining Monet’s garden

The 2026 edition of the Normandy Impressionist Festival will be dedicated to the theme of Monet’s garden in Giverny. Conceived as a genuine work of art, the garden marked the artist’s transition toward abstraction and became a turning point in modern art history. From June through September, around 50 contemporary art projects by international artists will reinterpret the theme of the garden through a modern lens.

Beyond these exceptional events, the centennial will also be an opportunity to admire Monet’s masterpieces in the prestigious Parisian collections of the Musée d’Orsay, the Musée de l’Orangerie, the Musée Marmottan Monet, as well as in Normandy’s museums in Rouen, Le Havre, Giverny and Honfleur.

To extend the experience, visitors can “step inside the painting” by exploring the landscapes that inspired Monet : the cliffs of Étretat, Rouen Cathedral, the ports of Honfleur and Le Havre, and of course the gardens of Giverny — true living canvasses. The houses where Monet lived, in Argenteuil, Vétheuil, and Giverny, offer a unique glimpse into the painter’s private life.

Many thanks to Mark for the masterful contribution above. I hope you’ll agree with me in thinking he has excelled himself this month.

What’s happening in the Sandwich Honfleur Twinning Association?

As previewed in last month’s newsletter, our 2025-2026 film season resumes on Wednesday 14th January with ‘Antoinette dans les Cévennes’, a comedy written and directed by Caroline Vignal, released in 2020. It stars Laure Calamy, winner of Best Actress for her rôle at the 2021 César Awards, while the film itself was nominated for Best Film at the 2021 Cannes international Film Festival.

A review and synopsis from Palace Films goes as follows:

“The Number One comedy hit of the 2021 Alliance Française Film Festival, writer- director Caroline Vignal’s hilarious and life-affirming ‘Antoinette dans les Cévennes’ stars the wonderful Laure Calamy (Call My Agent!, Aurore) as a woman who finds herself on a journey of self-discovery in somewhat unexpected circumstances.

40-something primary school teacher Antoinette (Calamy, in a career-making turn) has been eagerly looking forward to a long-planned weekend escape with her married lover Vladimir (Benjamin Lavernhe), the father of one of her pupils. However,their plans are upended by his wife’s booking of a surprise hiking trip in the picturesque Cévennes mountains in the South of France (a six-day trek made famous by best-selling author Robert Louis Stevenson). Completely unversed in the ways of the wilderness, the spurned Antoinette impulsively decides to follow them, and once paired with an unlikely companion – an obstinate but evidently wise grey donkey named Patrick – discovers much, much more than she bargained for… 

Carried by the remarkable Calamy, Vignal’s wonderfully mischievous film offers both Antoinette and audiences an uproarious and poignant reminder of the virtues of independence, and that the journey, not the destination, is often the reward.  Buoyed by rave reviews and phenomenal word of mouth, this understated, heartfelt charmer outperformed many US blockbusters, becoming one of France’s bighits of the year.”

For those of you with a new paper diary you’re wanting to put to good use, here’s a heads-up of the film we’ll be showing as our second of the New Year: you can see ‘Caché’ on Wednesday 11th February. The film was written and directed by Michael Haneke, released in 2005, and stars two of France’s A-list actors, Daniel Auteuil and Juliette Binoche. It won three awards at Cannes, including Best Director; five European Film Awards, including Best Film amongst other honours. It was controversially disqualified for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language, simply due to its director and the language of the film being of different nationalities. ‘Caché’ has been regarded in the years since its release as one of the great films of the 2000s, included in BBC’s 100 Greatest Films of the 21st Century.

The plot follows an upper-middle-class French couple, Georges (Auteuil) and Anne (Binoche), who are terrorised by anonymous tapes that appear on their front porch and seem to show the family is under surveillance. Clues in the videos point to Georges’s childhood memories, and his resistance to his parents’ adopting an Algerian orphan named Majid, who was sent away.

The film was shot in Paris and Vienna in 2004. Haneke wrote the screenplay with Auteuil and Binoche in mind, and with a concept of exploring guilt and childhood. When he learned of the French government’s decades-long denial of the 1961 Seine River massacre, he incorporated memories of the event into his story.

If you’d like to reserve your place for either or both of our January and/or February films, 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 either pay in advance online to SHTA, account number: 42027168; sort code: 30-90-09; or you can pay by cash or card on the night.

For further use of your diary, whether paper, digital or mental, please note that our remaining films for 2026 will be as follows:

• Wed. 11th March – ‘Les Emotifs Anonymes’
• Wed. 15th April – ‘Renoir’
• Wed. 20th May – ‘L’Effrontée’
• Wed. 17th June – ‘Portrait de la Jeune Fille en Feu’

Now that 2026 is actually underway, the Visit to Sandwich by the Honfleur Group from Thursday 14th – Sunday 17th May appears just around the corner. If your capacity to host for these three nights has changed in one way or another, please do let me know as soon as possible, either by phone or email. Many thanks if you’ve already informed us that you’d be able to host a guest or two in your home in the Spring.

That’s all the news for now. Hoping that you’re staying warm and well,

Best wishes from Stuart & the Committee