Carnival Week 2008 - Showing the Flag

The Association manned (and womanned) a tombola stall at the August bank holiday street fair in Seaton as part of our all so important fund raising effort. Next year, perhaps as many as 50 French guests may appear, and we need to provide hospitality for them, and this includes all entry fees, transport, snacks and a formal dinner on our big day out. Fund raising is therefore not an important issue, it is a vital issue. Thanks then to all who helped on Monday, and thanks to all who provided prizes. After expenses, we made just over £50 (that is not finalised) which all helps but there is still a lot to do. Nevertheless as the French proverb goes "Petit à petit l'oiseau fait son nid" ***

It is not all fund raising of course, we were also there to show the flag, literally so, as the photos show.

*** Little by little, the bird builds its nest

Walk 17 September

Gerry has arranged another walk. This one is on Wednesday 17 September. Meet 6.30 pm Musbury Church for choice of walks to and around Musbury Castle. This will be followed by a get together at the Harbour Inn at Axmouth around 8.15. As at the earlier walk this year on the Undercliff, local historian, Derek Stevens will be on hand to liven up the walk with his historical anecdotes and local knowledge

Pre-1945 Thury-Harcourt

If you have ever wondered what Thury-Harcourt looked like before the war, check out the new photo album of 24 old postcards that has been added to the list of albums to the right. Of especial note is the chateau showing that it was much larger than the current ruined facade suggests and the rather interesting market hall. Both these buildings were casualties of the battle of Normandy in 1944.

Seaton Carnival Week - Street Market and Boules

The Association will be involved with two carnival events
Saturday 23 August 12-2 pm Cliff Field Gardens
The Association has accepted a request from Seaton Carnival Committee to host a boules event at Cliff Field Gardens as part of the Carnival Week. It will be a sort of taster event and, - try a few ends, "how do you play", etc. and will form part of a series of events during the day along with other things such as a fancy dress competition and pebble, face and pavement painting. Accordingly there may well be a number of children having a go. We are pleased to have the opportunity to be able to contribute towards the success of this years carnival campaign.
Anybody who wants to come along and help out will be most welcome. We will be there with publicity, and will hopefully raise our profile some more.

Monday 25 August 8-12 (approx) Street Market on the Esplanade. We are running a tombola stall to raise funds using the items bought and donated by members as part of our twinning visit to Thury in May. We aim to set up at 8am ready to open at 9. Help is always welcome so please contact Rose Tidball or Clare Jones if you can help in manning the stand or have any more prizes (not just French ones) you can donate.

2008 visit - French Newspaper Coverage

For those that missed the local French newspaper coverage of the 2008 visit, a link to the appropriate web page has been added to the list of links on the right. The visit was unusual in that this time no less than seven Seaton twinners travelled independently, and all turned up at the Thury Town Hall in time to welcome the main party. Those with a wry sense of humour will note that the paper Ouest-France chose to lead with a picture of Seaton's Association chairman Jeff Day being warmly welcomed by .... argh hum..., his own vice-chairman.

Committee Meeting 13 August and Agenda Items

There is a committee meeting on 13th August at 7.30pm at the Crossroads Centre. If anyone would like to put an item on the agenda please let the Secretary know as soon as possible. This applies to anyone, not necessarily just committee members. The committee is always keen to hear the views or ideas of all our members (or indeed non-members) so get your thoughts on fund raising, events, publicity together please

Photo Gallery

The blog has been changed to allow better access to the photo galleries by adding links to individual collections held on the web. These links are permanently displayed in the right hand margin. The previous small slide shows have been deleted because of technical problems of compatibility with the web storage

More photo albums have been added including archive and event photos and records from our 2004 visit. All these are accessible through the links. Some of the 2004 photos tie in quite nicely with the last posting about the Liberation Memorial

Liberation Memorial and Interpretation Board

Because many of our french hosts live in isolated hamlets outside Thury-Harcourt, there is limited opportunity to explore the town. Those who went in 2004 may remember visiting the planned site of memorial to the liberation of the town sited where the British 59th (Staffordshire) infantry division first came in sight of their objection, but may have missed visiting it later after its completion. Hence this photo. The interpretation board gives a account of the battle, and shows photos of the aftermath with much of town centre destroyed.

More details of the board with close-up photos can be found on the very worthwhile site

www.normandie44lamemoire.com/versionanglaise/fichesvillesus/thuryharcous2.html

The site also covers many of the sites visited during our visits in 1994 and 2004 which coincided with the the 50th and 60th anniversaries of the D-day landings