Our first experience of the Friends of  Nevers visit, May 2015 – by Catrin & Chris

Like excited school children we had gathered at St Pancras Station and were whisked by Eurostar to Paris. Soon we were heading out to the lovely Nivernais countryside, home of the gentle Charolais cows, beautiful rivers – the Loire, Nievre and Allier – vineyards and the tranquil Nivernais canal.

Warmly welcomed by Jacques and Yvette, our kind French hosts, we immediately relaxed and looked forward to a few days of French culture and French language  ‘immersion’. The only pressing decision was which enticing aperitif to sample (I chose one made by Yvette with plums from the garden). A lovely meal comprising of five courses – the French like to serve salad and cheese as separate additional courses – was a taste of things to come, all washed down with a bottle of excellent local wine.

So how had we stumbled upon this Francophile dream? Having taken family holidays in France for over twenty years, we were keen to improve our French and met Gill in our French conversation group.  She told us all about the Friends of Nevers exchange. We couldn’t quite believe that we hadn’t heard of it before, and decided it would be a great opportunity to improve our French, learn about the delightful town of Nevers and support the twinning association.

An excellent guided tour on Friday morning revealed some of the town’s secrets. The impressive Ducal Palace, with its Renaissance façade is considered the first of the chateaux of the Loire. The narrow medieval streets of the old town cluster above the river.   The awe-inspiring Cathédrale with its remarkable, strikingly contemporary stained glass windows was certainly a talking point for St Albans visitors and our Nivernais hosts alike.

Jacques and Yvette took us to see the aqueduct on the Nivernais canal. Chris thoroughly enjoyed learning lots of new French vocabulary concerning locks, bridges and canals, as he and Jacques chatted away. A shared passion for science and technology can certainly bridge the language barrier! Yvette too made us feel ‘part of the family’, even calling me (Catrin) ‘ma cousine’, because my family are from Wales and her grandmother was Breton, and only spoke the Breton language not French.

A convivial communal evening meal was enjoyed by all on Friday evening.  We certainly were being spoilt on the food and wine front and it helped our French speaking ability no end!  Another packed day on Saturday with a coach trip to Clamecy where we learnt the fascinating history of ‘les flotteurs’ – the latter-day logging industry sending gigantic rafts of logs from the Morvan forest down the river to fuel the fires of Paris. A five course meal and more local wine at lunchtime fortified us for an afternoon visit to the famous basilica at Vézelay on the pilgrim’s road to Compostella.

Our final day in Nevers was spent with Jacques and Yvette and their French friends for a ‘déjeuner sur l’herbe’; a thoroughly French lakeside picnic. A few hours later we found ourselves deep underground, helmets donned, at the bottom of a disused coalmine! The mining museum at the aptly named La Machine gave us a glimpse into  the tough real lives of the miners in the 1800s.

On Monday morning as we left and said ‘Au Revoir’, we felt it had been much more than a short break in France. The Friends of Nevers trip had truly offered us an insight into French culture and language. We had really felt part of the real France with our new friends!

Catrin and Chris