Vannes Medics visit Fareham

Visitors and hosts in Winchester

Fareham Medical Society and Vannes doctors jumelage 20th/21st October 2018

Nine adults and 9 children from Vannes crossed the Channel for the weekend visit. The first meet up was at a cafe in Winchester which is situated in an eclectic retro antiques shop called Project.  As ever, it was lovely to be reunited with our French friends, as well as welcoming one or two newcomers.  We all ate brunch with things like Mexican Eggs on the menu, whilst we caught up on the events of the last year.

 In the afternoon, we were pleased to be joined by three members of the Fareham-Vannes Twinning Association (Nigel Sharpe, and Joy and Martin Cooper) who remained with us for the rest of the day.  We had an excellent guided walking tour of Winchester with one English-Speaking and one French-speaking guide.  This involved a walk along the river, visiting the bishop’s palace, Winchester College and finally the Cathedral.  We learned about the diver who saved Winchester Cathedral by diving down into the waterlogged foundations of the Cathedral to lay concrete, thus allowing the reinforcement of the foundations before the whole building came tumbling down.

In the evening, we all met at The King’s Head in Wickham for a meal and a skittles competition, ably organised by Alison Ascough and Anna Gandhe.  All were divided into teams and competed for the ultimate prize of a pair of cruets shaped as the pound sign and in the colours of the Union Jack.  The evening was a great success.

On Sunday there was a very interesting talk at Queen Alexandra Hospital by Ad Gandhe entitled innovations in surgery.  He demonstrated recent advances in orthopaedic and general surgery.  The French doctors were interested to see Queen Alexandra Hospital and commented how spacious and modern it is compared to a lot of French Hospitals.  Finally we had lunch at Karen Nugent and Nick Campkin’s house in Portchester, where Nick had cooked an enormous curry, and guests supplied puddings.  We said our sad goodbyes “a la prochaine”!   (October 2019 in Vannes)

With many thanks to the Fareham-Vanness Twinning Association for their kind support to our twinning meeting.

Bill Cutter

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