Argentan in Normandy has been a twin town to Abingdon since 1956 and is therefore Abingdon’s longest lasting twin. It is the most easily reached of the twin towns -just a Brittany Ferry ride from Portsmouth to Caen and then a 30-40 minute car drive away.

The first weekend after Easter is known as Quasimodo Sunday, the weekend when Argentan has its ‘Quasimodo’ agricultural fair. Here the Mayor of Argentan (centre) can be seen next to the Mayor of Rotenburg (another twin town), about to cut the tape. With EU funding, a mock German street had been re-created in one hall of the fair, and market stalls brought over, so this year it was very much a Franco German event.

The fair includes a large funfair, an exhibition of commercial stalls, displays of agricultural equipment and cars, and best of breed competitions for cows and horses.

Here two shire horses strut their stuff.

You can see from this stall in the Fair that we Brits easily make up the most visitors to this area of Normandy.

Already this year from Abingdon as part of twinning: cyclists have gone across, a rugby team, 46 MG club members, some members of the Church in Abingdon, John Mason School, and next month a combined choir of the Church in Abingdon is visiting. So at the grass-roots relations are thriving, but at the civic level the Mayors of Argentan and Rotenburg have remained unchanged for several years and have built a relationship and this joint fair may well be the result. Such things don’t happen easily.