The north Craven market town of Settle could soon inspire a new festival across the English Channel as VIP visitors from its twin town in France were enthralled by the preparations for this year’s Settle Flowerpot Festival.
Settle was first twinned with Banyuls-sur-Mer in 1992, and though links were forged in those early days, time – and COVID – interrupted relations for a while. Thanks to the efforts of Philip McCarthy, a fluent French speaker approached by Settle Council, exchange activities are back on track. Settle’s twinning team visited Banyuls in 2022 and welcomed the visitors reciprocal visit to Settle in time to see the preparations underway for his year’s Flowerpot Festival.
Michel Barthet, President of the Banyuls-sur-Mers twinning association, very much enjoyed visiting The Potting Shed at Watershed Mill which is the Festival HQ. The space provides residents and groups in the town with a place to work on their exhibits each year and hosts flowerpot workshops for schoolchildren during the summer holidays.
To celebrate the towns’ twinning and in honour of Monsieur Barthet’s visit, the Town Council commissioned an exhibit to reside on a bench outside the Town Hall during the Festival later this summer, featuring a Yorkshireman and a Frenchman enjoying a convivial drink together.
The visiting French team were impressed and enthused by the exhibit and others they saw in progress and will share the ideas with town leaders in Banyuls as inspiration for a similar event there in the future.
The visit to the Potting Shed also led to conversations between North Ribblesdale Rugby Union Club and their counterparts in France to arrange exchange visits for the junior and senior teams.