Background:

Neufchatel-Hardelot is a town with a population of 3,900 on the Pas-de-Calais coast in Northern France between Boulogne and Le Touquet, offering a lovely long sandy beach as well as good sporting and cultural facilities. This enables visits to or from either side of the Channel to be completed in a day, if not longer.

We are establishing contacts with Neufchatel-Hardelot because we believe this will be of interest to many individuals and families in Otford and the surrounding areas.

We are developing direct relationships between individuals and families via football matches, Anglo-French walks, painting, golf as well as school email exchanges, tennis, horse jumping, on and off-road cycling, sailing, kite boarding, sandboarding and kite flying. Please look up their website for more details, maps etc: www.ville-neufchatel-hardelot.fr

Events:

- Two teams of 8 young French footballers aged 9-10 visited Otford Recreation Ground on Saturday 16 May 2009 to play against local footballers

- A group visited the Otford Village Fete on Bank Holiday Monday 31 May 2010.

- A small group of artists visited Hardelot on Saturday 14 August

- Another group visited Neufchatel-Hardelot and enjoyed a hosted walk along the beach and through the forest on Friday 17 September - see the visit report for details and photo gallery.

Tuesday 17 May
A group of 20 came to Otford , some to walk to Shoreham for a pub lunch, others to spend time painting with the Art Club.

Sunday 12 June
A coach party visited Hardelot for the local market, an excellent lunch, the Dickens Exhibition at Le Chateau d'Hardelot and the children enjoyed time on the lovely sandy beach.

A summary of these and proposals for future events can be found here.

If anyone would like further information about current or future activities, please contact the Otford Parish Office (email: otfordpc@btinternet.com or telephone: +44 (0)1959 524808).