Council

TOWN TWINNING

Joue-les-Tours, France

Joue-les-Tours is a town with a population of 40,000 situated in the Touraine region of north central France, near the River Loire. It is the second largest town in the region.

The twinning questionnaire, completed by the Joue local authority contained the following description: "Spread over a wide area, the town is endowed with a spacious urbanism where the individual is privileged to live near to the country side in an area which offers many possibilities for leisure activities".

The community has  nursery schools, fourteen primary schools and four secondary schools. The town also has a football ground, a rugby stadium, an open air tennis complex, three swimming pools, eight gymnasiums, an ice rink and a number of other sporting facilities.

The former Cumnock & Doon Valley District formally twinned with the French town of Joue-les-Tours on 21 April 1990. This signing ceremony was held in Cumnock and followed an earlier signing ceremony in Joue the previous October.

Twinning Association

To support the twinning, a local twinning association was formed which provided a strong and committed force to further the new opportunities that the initiative made available to the area. The twinning heralded an opportunity for all sectors of the community to become involved: businesses, schools, youth organisations, bands etc.

The Cumnock and Doon Valley Twinning Association was very active in promoting twinning throughout the district's area. It organised many fundraising and social events, including Burn Suppers, and St Andrews' nights.

Visits 

Cumnock and Doon Valley had a very successful twinning arrangement with Joue-les-Tours, and a number of visits, covering a wide range of groups in the community, were organised over the years. For example exchange visits were arranged between families and between schools in the two communities. In addition industrial promotion was encouraged between the two communities and Cumnock and Doon Valley established a showcase of goods and services that are provided by local companies in the main reception area of the town hall in Joue. This showcase promoted Cumnock and Doon Valley industry and commerce in the area's twin town.

Many further connections were made, and one of the most interesting was an exchange of books between the library services of Cumnock and Doon Valley and Joue-les-Tours. The books which Joue sent are still available for loan from libraries throughout the Cumnock and Doon Valley area.

Cumnock Athletic Club also visited the French town to participate in the local road race. Another interesting visit from Joue was when their saxophone quartet played in Cumnock at a number of venues. This visit culminated in a free evening of music in Cumnock Town Hall. This was a great success and a group of local musicians, who called themselves the Colin Walker Orchestra, provided some superb additional entertainment.

A reciprocal visit by the Ayrshire Clarinet Choir was held the following year. They played throughout Joue, and their visit culminated in a concert to well over 1,000 people at a special 20th anniversary ceremony to celebrate Joue's twinning with one of their other twin towns, Hechingen in Germany.

In addition job experience visits were organised for young people, the purpose of which was to give them the opportunity of experiencing the work environment of another European country.