On Friday 29th Sept myself, Angus and Councillor Brenda Canham travelled to Les Ulis to represent Thetford Town Council at a commemoration of the twinning link between
the two towns. We left Thetford at 11am so that we could arrive in Les Ulis for
around early evening time but thanks to delays on the A11 getting out of
Thetford and past Elveden, the M11 being completely shut and then delays on the
M25 and Dartford Crossing - we didn't arrive into Les Ulis until gone midnight
and we were naturally very tired! On Saturday we rested in the morning and then
after breakfast we had a look around the shopping centre and main park before
we met up with our hosts. They gave us a very informative tour around Les Ulis
library ('mediatheque') and swimming pool ('piscine') and they took us to see examples
of community centres and youth projects as well as a tour around some of the
main housing areas. We were interested to learn that 80% of Les Ulis residents live in apartments and 60% of the
population is under 30! We were amazed at the facilities that were on offer and
Les Ulis Council clearly spends a lot of money on sports, recreation and
culture. We also visited a skatepark, a football area (sponsored by Thierry Henry - who was born in Les Ulis) and other youth facilities.
In the evening we attended the official welcome reception hosted by
the Mayor of Les Ulis Sonia Dahou. We were treated to some traditional French food
and greeted in French by the Mayor who presented us each with a gift. We in
turn read out a speech from the Mayor of Thetford - Cllr Stuart Wright and
presented Les Ulis with a framed picture of Kings House.
Talking with the Mayor
of Les Ulis was very interesting - she is directly elected by the residents of
the town and she is elected for a period of 6 years (the current Mayor has only
been in office for a year as she was appointed by the last Mayor as she went on
to become the MP for Les Ulis at a national election). Being the Mayor of Les Ulis is a full-time role. The 'municipal' or Council has 800 staff - and
it took some time to explain about Thetford Town Council and it's
responsibilities and the role of Breckland and Norfolk Councils. After the
reception we visited an African music concert - reflecting Les Ulis's diverse
culture with a lot of African inhabitants (Les Ulis is also twinned with Sedhiou in Senegal).
On Sunday morning we visited a traditional French flea market - there
had been torrential rain earlier in the morning so I felt very sorry for the
stall holders who were braving it out! there was some food and drink prepared
for us and other guests. We were then given a tour around the Council run greenhouse /
allotment. 25 people work there and they grow all the plants to service the
towns shrub beds and planters etc - they explained that they have been making a
considerable effort to make Les Ulis a very green and pleasant place. The area
also served as an allotment where school groups and youth groups could visit
and learn about growing fruit and vegetable. There was also an aviary of sorts
that housed stray cats found in the area which were then re-housed. After this
we were treated to a Portuguese dish of fish and mashed potato - Les Ulis is
also twinned with a town in Portugal.
Big thank-you to Angus for accompanying us on the trip and not only helping with the driving (I was rather poorly and tired after a busy conference week!) but he also helped with translating and taking pictures - thankyou x
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