A local choir has welcomed their French counterpart as part of celebrating 40 years building links with Europe.

South Brent community choir have recently welcomed the choir of La Chorale de la Vallée from Chateauneuf-du-Faou, their twinned town in the department of Finistere in the west of Brittany.

The two choirs have visited each other every two years for many years, alternately in Brent and in Chateauneuf. As always, old friendships were renewed and new ones made.

The French Chorale members were welcomed at South Brent village hall on Friday, June 9, and spent the following day enjoying the locality with their host families before returning to the village hall on Saturday evening for a ceilidh and supper with the band Buttoned Up.

Sunday saw the two choirs perform a joint concert in St. Petroc’s Church, a most appropriate venue as St. Petroc is also known as a Breton saint. The Chorale performed an entertaining and enjoyable selection of songs followed and complemented by music from Brent Singers.

The concert concluded with joint performances of works including the Breton national anthem ‘Bro Goz ma Zadou’ (Old Land of my Fathers).

Brent Singers Director of Music, Philip Arkwright described the weekend as: ‘a super experience and fun’. He thanked the chairman, John Roberts, and everyone involved for the work they put in. in turn, John congratulated the choir on their collective efforts and everyone working behind the scenes at the ceilidh and the Sunday tea to make them very enjoyable occasions.

He described the weekend as: ‘a very special one’ and said that their French guests were fulsome in their praise.

Twinning association member Bill Nolan explained: "In the 1970s the newly formed Brittany Ferries company, operating between Roscoff and Plymouth, was keen to support links and contacts between Brittany and the south west of England.

"With the support of the company, villages and towns in Brittany were twinned with similarly sized villages and towns in Cornwall and Devon.

"South Brent was twinned with Chateauneuf-du-Faou. The mayor of Chateauneuf at the time contacted Peter Moore, then chair of South Brent Parish Council to try and set something up. Initially as a trial visit, to see how successfully this twinning project might work, South Brent Football Club sent its football team to Chateauneuf.