Athy is reclaiming its title of Capital of South Kildare as it gears up to greet the 60 visitors from Grandvilliers- north of Paris- for the St. Patricks Week ‘Year of the French' Festival. The visitors will stay with families,not just in Athy but spread out as far as Newbridge, Kilcullen, Timolin and even Portlaoise.
The Mayor of Grandvilliers Jacques Larcher will be staying with Tom Yates in ‘suburban' Athy.. The mayoral term there is for 6 years, unlike Ireland where it is usually just for one. Tom is in charge of finding accomodation for all those coming, but his task is eased a little on him, by the fact that many of the visitors have already looked after Twinners who represented Athy in France last November. So they will now play host to them.
The Vice Mayor, Jean Paul Tridaudent and his wife Anne Marie will be staying with Athy Town Manager Des Page. Des is also in charge of Enterprise and Community Affairs for all of County Kildare.
Nearer to Athy, Jean-Pierre Vasseur who is chairman of Grandvilliers Twinning Committee will be staying with his counterpart Richard Daly who chairs Athy Twinning. Just to show how well chosen they were, Jean-Pierre speaks excellent English while Richard is fluent in French. He has even organised conversational French classes at the Community College for the host families. Jean Pierre retired from a Transport Company last year and now devotes most of his time ti the Twinning Project.
Outside Grandvilliers, tillage land stretches for miles, no hedges or ditches. Different crops grow side by side. The farmers know which is theirs but to the uninitiated in looks like one huge farm. It may be that they were left like that after the two world wars-no places to hide- or it may be good use of every inch of space. Bruno Bellinger is one of those farmers. He showed Tony and Agnes Donoghue around his very efficiently run tillage farm about 6 miles from Grandvilliers when they stayed with Bruno and his family last year. Now they will stay with Tony in Timolin which is just about the same distance from Athy.
Michel Leon is The Cobbler of Grandvilliers. His is a beautiful shop on the Town Square. He is a big man, I mean big. He speaks no English but his interest in music sparked an immediate friendship with Joe Lanigan of Narraghmore. Nor does Joe speak French, yet they have no difficulty in communicating with each other. Their common interest in music seems to ensure an easy understanding. When asked why he got involved in Twinning he said To have new friends, to know another country….and to repair Leprachauns' shoes !
‘Twinning is all about people. It's about people from different backgrounds, different cultures, different countries, speaking different languages coming together and becoming friends.' Said Helen Dowling who as Town Clerk and Twinning Secretary is co-ordinating all the arrangements.
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