Monday, March 20, 2006

Twins

Brecon is twinned with a small Breton town called Gouesnou, near Brest.
Alternate years we visit each others homes and stay with a host family.
It is good fun.
New members sometimes get the wrong idea of what they are supposed to do when hosting. I heard of a case where the Brecon host did not know you were expected to feed your guests. It was two days without food before the stoical Breton made enquiries which resolved the issue.
Last year our guest told us of a pre-visit lecture given by the leader of the Bretons to those for whom this visit to stay with Welsh families was a new experience.
He urged them to follow the customs of their Welsh hosts when it came to food.
“If your host gets up off the sofa and wanders over to the fridge, peers inside, rummages about, drags something out and carries it back to the sofa to consume; you do the same”.

3 comments:

MacDuff said...

PS I think Ill rename this blog Le grand Anglais

FBT said...

Oh dear that doesn't make the Welsh look too good, does it? What do the Bretons do, sit down to a properly cooked 4 course meal of organic local produce every evening at 8?

Surely that should be Le Grand Gallois.

MacDuff said...

There is a story that one Welsh couple were fed on nothing but turnips for 4 days and I will try to substantiate this during the coming trip in May. I must say though that food on both sides is usually first class. I had some fantastic sea food at our hosts last year.
I feel uneasy about Le Grand Gallois because I reason as follows;
Gallois sounds like Gauloise.
Gauloise is a cigarette.
You puff on a cigarette.
Therefore Le Grand Gallois by word association resembles the big Puff which is but a short step from The Big Poof.