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Editorial Paimpol
Published on
Dec 1 2024 at 6:10 a.m.
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A new associationnamed “Paimpol – Vermilion Twinning Committee” was born last June. She takes up the torch of the twinning committee between Paimpol (Côtes-d'Armor) and a town in Ohio, in the UNITED STATESfallen into oblivion for years.
More than 30 years ago…
However, in 1992, under the aegis of the mayors of the time, Alex Angney in Vermilion and Max Querrien in Paimpol, everything seemed to be going well. A group of Paimpolais had even done the journey across the Atlantic to discover the port city on the banks of the Lake Erie.
This twinning was born from the desire of a Francophile industrialist wishing to twin his town of Vermilion with a French town with similarities in terms of population (Vermilion today has 10,000 inhabitants), port and tourist activities.
But the twinning, if it still exists in fact, did not really last and the exchanges stopped quite quickly. Before experiencing a rebound…
The ties of a Paimpolais
Living in Paimpol for several years, Evelyne and Christian Gabriel have long wondered about the signs indicating the twinning of Paimpol:
There was, the town in Iceland (Grundarfjordurr), Romsey and Vermilion. The first two pairings seemed to work well. But we never heard from the one with the Ohio city. So we found out.
The couple indeed has ties to Uncle Sam’s country: “Our son lives in the USA. He is married to an American woman and our grandson is American. In addition, adds Christian, my family has long been in contact with a veteran I met for the first time in 1944 who died last year. »
An American week in April 2025
First contacts are made in 2023 and show interest on both sides of the Atlantic.
On the Ohio side, Margaret Wakefield-Worcester, daughter of the first chairman of the committee, Mr. Wakefield, and herself president of the Vermilion Historical Society, took on the project.
On the Paimpol side, the municipality is a stakeholder and the association whose aim is “to promote the establishment of relations between the inhabitants of Paimpol and those of Vermilion, in all areas, cultural, social, educational, sporting, economic, etc. ., in order to allow better mutual knowledge”, is born.
In order to really launch the twinning on the Paimpol side, the new committee decided to organize, from April 19 to 27, 2025, a “American Week of the Pays de Paimpol”.
The different sections of the American week will revolve around everything that makes up American culture, from the arts to sports, from history to tourism, from youth to culture.
Jazz, country, parades…
On this week's program, concerts (gospel, jazz, folk), de la danse countryconferences, exhibitions, car parades and motorcycles.
Sports (baseball, American football and basketball) will not be forgotten. The Librairie du Renard, the Paimpol Media Library and schools will be part of the adventure.
An exchange with Mr. Forthofer, mayor of Vermilion, suggests that a delegation from Vermilion could be present for this American week. What is a new challenge for the Paimpolais: “We are going to do everything so that the Americans are hosted by locals during this period, they explain. We are therefore launching a call to join this adventure and to celebrate with us the bonds of friendship between Paimpol and Vermilion, between France and the United States.
Contact: Paimpol – Vermilion Twinning Committee 10 Rue Pierre Feutren – 22 500 Paimpol. Email: [email protected]
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