The Aylsham Twinning Initiative was formed at a meeting at Aylsham High School attended by only 7 interested people.

The Initiative quickly gained momentum and after a lot of fact finding work, plus the normal formal overtures, contact was made by La Chaussée-Saint-Victor, near Blois on the River Loire, circumnavigating the red tape by a direct telephone call because of previous difficulties they had had with the twinning "bureaucracy".

July 1999

Four representatives from la Chaussée, including Madame Maire Jacqueline Gourault, visited the town and were delighted by the town, the area, the people they met and the warm welcome they received.

September 1999

A similar group from Aylsham paid a return visit to La Chaussée as a result of which firm friendships were quickly established in a very welcoming town in a lovely area of France.

August 2000

The first formal twinning ceremony took place at the Aylsham Show, attended by a party of 50 from La Chaussée. The official ceremony was in the grand ring in boiling hot sun, an omen for what was to become a very sunny and bright link between 2 special towns.

October 2000

A group of 63 Aylsham people went to France on the return visit for the corresponding twinning ceremony there. Since then the link has gone very quickly from strength to strength with interest, membership and involvement growing year on year.

July 2001

A group of 46 people, more than half of them new visitors, came to aylsham for the first informal exchange since the official twinning the previous year.

May 2002 A cycling visit

A party of 47 come to Aylsham from La Chaussée, including 15 who had cycled the 500 miles from the Loire Valley to Norfolk over 6 days. They were met at Dover by a keen Norfolk cyclist, John Woolnough, who cycled with them back to Norfolk, and they were met by Norfolk cyclists, including a few Aylsham Twinning members to guide them the last few miles home. This was followed by celebration in typical twinning style, including a dinner at the Aylsham Lodge Hotel.

June 2002 Jubilee weekend

We welcomed a delegation of 7 Chausséens, invited to represent their twinning association and their town to come and join in and share the fun of Aylsham's Golden jubilee celebrations.

August 2002

A group visit to our twin town was made by 60 enthusiastic twinners of Aylsham, some of them for the first time but many returning to revisit and stay with friends they had already made. Many of them had enjoyed private visits in the meantime, one way or the other.

May 2003 European Week

Nearly 30 members travelled to La Chaussée to share their European Days which celebrated the diverse cultures of the 15 member states of the EU. A similar group was there also from Ochtendung, their German twin town, plus individuals from most of the other European Union countries of the time (prior to further enlargement). The Aylsham group was joined in La Chaussée by members of Aylsham Flower Club who went there to contribute floral displays as part of their own 50th anniversary celebrations.

August 2003 Cycles again

Our French friends were in Aylsham again, nearly 70 of them, for the bank holiday weekend and the Aylsham Show, and were welcomed into the homes of Aylsham Twinning members for the second or third time in several cases. Among the party were members of the la Chaussée Vintage Cycles Club who gave 2 displays at Aylsham Show as part of the Show programme, dressed in period costume appropriate to the age of their bikes. In typical show business style, Mauricette Martinez rode her machine despite slipping on the boat to the seals at Morston the previous day and injuring her leg.

February 2004

As a result of a visit in August 2003 of a small group of Germans from Ochtendung, La Chaussées's German twin town, a small delegation from Aylsham accepted an invitation to visit Ochtendung for the weekend of their annual Karnaval, a celebration on a huge scale including a procession of floats and up to 1000 fancy-dressed townspeople.

May 2004

Another group visit to La Chaussée by Aylsham Twinning saw a total of 40 people enjoying the normal unsurpassable levels of friendship and hospitality. Visits were often underground this time, while we looked at mushroom cultivation in some of the disused galleries from which some of the chateau stone had been mined, a look at some troglodyte caves, and a dinner in a function room in yet another formerly disused underground gallery, this time having been brought back to life for wine storage as well as the function suite. During the dinner, Ivan and Lutkin were made Chevaliers, which, apart from giving them the award, required them to drink at least 100 bottles of Touraine wine each year!!

February 2005

There was another invitation for a small group to visit Ochtendung at the time of the Karnaval, and experience to be savoured we are told.

July 2005 Fifth Anniversary French group visit to Aylsham

The fifth anniversary is a good reason to have a celebration and a group of 55 guests (including 10 from Ochtendung) arrived on the 14th July to join their friends in Aylsham for a varied programme of event and functions, including a grand celebration dinner. Our French visitors brought over their theatre company, the Théatre de Mées, to perform French romantic farce written by Marcel Achard (who adopted La Chaussée as his home) called Voulez-vous jouer avec Moâ. 

The celebration dinner was held for the first time outside Aylsham, because of the number attending. The venue was Pinewoods at Bodham, who provided a superb meal, admired by French and British alike. A celebration cake was prepared by our own town clerk, Mo Reynolds and enjoyed by all. Visits included a tour to Sutton Mill museum, a journey on the broads from Horning and a visit to Ranworth. Afternoon tea and croquet was enjoyed at Diggens Farm, and Aylsham Ex-Servicemen's and Social Club treated our visitors to an English Pub evening.

September 2005 Fifth anniversary return visit to La Chaussée

As the original Twinning charters were signed officially in both towns in the same year, it was agreed that the Fifth Anniversary of what has been a very successful project should be celebrated in both places this year. So about 50 went from Aylsham to La Chaussée in early September, at the time of the Foire aux beignets in France, the La Chaussée annual Doughnut Fair. Visits organised included a morning in Vendôme, the Cathedral at Orléans, the Commanderie d'Arville, a historic Knights Templar base, and the floral gardens at Orléans La Source. The dinner was held in a hall in the grounds of Chambord chateau, and included the presentation to Aylsham Twinning of the coat of arms of La Chaussée carved in wood.

May/June 2006

In the rotation of regular group exchanges, it was our turn again to go to La Chaussée, this visit coinciding with the 10th anniversary of their twinning with Ochtendung. At the end of a busy but extremely enjoyable programme of activities, 200 people sat down for the excellent celebration dinner, including 30 Germans and over 40 from Aylsham.

Information from the Aylsham Twinning website.  For more information visit: www.aylshamtwinning.co.uk