Click to see a map of our destinations
I had the pleasure last month of traveling with a contingent of city ambassadors to visit and network with two of our four Sister City partners: Vendôme, France and Southampton, England.
Hampton’s other two sister cities are Anyang, South Korea, and Pietermaritzburg, South Africa.
The objective of this ambassadorial voyage, which was paid for entirely by the members of the delegation, was to renew and strengthen our relationships with these communities.
The group departed from Hampton on July 15th and consisted of three citizens: Geoffrey Tennille, President of Sister Cities of Hampton, Dr. Martha Tennille, Secretary of Sister Cities of Hampton and Brittany Foster, Member of Sister Cities of Hampton, plus Special Assistant to the City Manager Dianne Foster, and myself. The trip started one day late due to bad weather in Atlanta.
After a daylong stopover in Paris, the party traveled to Vendôme on a TVG high-speed rail train. Vendôme is 130 miles southwest of Paris – a casual two hour drive, but the train covered the distance in 40 minutes and the ride was as smooth as it was quick.
The train trip left me with two particular impressions. First, in both England and France, I was taken aback by the proliferation of graffiti on the urban buildings adjacent to the tracks. On the other hand, the rural French countryside was beautiful and tranquil, but was dotted with many wind turbines in clusters of 12 and 16.
Vendôme, France
Upon arrival in Vendôme, we were greeted by city staff and taken to a quaint hotel, which seemed to me to reflect an ambiance of a Victorian Bed and Breakfast facility. While the room was modest in size, it departed from the Victorian bent in that it contained a two burner stove, a small refrigerator, a sink and a microwave.
Our 400 years of history pales when compared to Vendôme. According to the “Treaty of Andelot”, this community has a history that dates back to 584 A.D. Parts of an eleventh century castle still stand on the southern rocky promontory of the city.
Vendôme has long been home to a powerful religious abbey with strong ties to the Vatican, and the interweaving of governance and religion through the ages there is too complicated to be explained herein. Suffice it to say that they have evolved to a governing structure comparable to our own.
They have many architecturally significant buildings in the city and one that I found the Trinity Abbey mentioned above to be particularly intriguing.
Trinity Abbey - Vendôme, France
Vendôme is located in the Loir Valley and the Loir River meanders around and through the city. A wine industry once flourished around Vendôme, but has, up until recently, given way to crops of cereal instead of grapes. However in 2001, local wineries won the coveted “Appellation d’Origine Controlee” award and producers can now emphasize the local aspects of their wines.
Vendôme’s wines and a new product innovation recently announced there called “Wine in a Tube” are two possible areas for exploring further opportunities for economic development between our two cities.
The town today is home to 18,500 people with more then 70,000 inhabitants in the very immediate surroundings. An interesting side trip was arranged for our group to visit the family estate of the French General Rochambeau, who commanded the six thousand troops at Yorktown that paved the way for the defeat of the British in 1781 and securing our independence.
The estate has to be seen to be fully appreciated, with its pastoral setting amidst a meandering brook and rolling hills. Snow white cattle graze in the fields and limestone caves dot the grounds. The caves were created as a result of the mining of stone to build structures in nearby communities. Today many of the caves are used as wine cellars.
At the Vendôme City Hall, which has been converted from a royal military academy and high school, we were warmly greeted by Mayor Catherine Lockhart and her staff. They enthusiastically endorsed and signed a proclamation reaffirming our sister city partnership and committing to the continued exchange of cultural and educational opportunities between our citizens, our respective school systems and universities. Further they immediately committed to visit our city during our upcoming Bay Days festival and 400th Anniversary Celebration.
After another day of touring additional city sites and wine related facilities, we departed Vendôme and traveled by train through the English Channel tunnel to London and on to Southampton, England.
Southampton, UK
Upon arrival, the difference between the two cities is readily apparent. Southampton is a seaport town of 230,000 people with over 12,000 of them employed in seaport related jobs. It’s located 60 miles southwest of London and 19 miles northwest of Portsmouth.
Southampton is a major cruise port with over half of England’s cruise business. In 2009, more than one million passengers departed from the city. Interestingly, both the Mayflower and the Titantic voyages were launched from Southampton. Besides its maritime interests, Southampton’s economic base is structured around tourism and distribution. More than 7,700 businesses exist there.
Southampton University has more than 15,000 students, boasts major research facilities and is one of the top ten Universities in England. Gambling casinos are legal and are found in Southampton.
The governmental structure has 48 councilors elected from 16 districts. Their administrative structure is very similar to ours and serves their councilors as our manager and staff serves our council. Many of their economic development issues reflect our own, such as: workforce development, center city revitalization, community and neighborhood renewal, and developing a means to capitalize on local university research. They expressed some interest in Hampton University’s proton therapy initiative.
Southampton, UK
As in Vendôme, we were received with great warmth and enthusiasm by Mayor Carol Cunio and her staff. A proclamation was signed to continue our economic, cultural and educational relationships at both local and the university levels.
Due to the short time left for her to be in office, Mayor Cunio felt that there was only a slight possibility of a Southampton delegation being able to join us for this year’s Bay Days event and 400th Anniversary celebration. When the new Southampton leadership is in place, we will engage them immediately to capitalize on the initiatives just reaffirmed for our mutual benefit.
The Sister City program was launched under President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1956 to set up town affiliations linking U.S. communities with counterparts around the globe. This program currently reaches 134 countries with an objective to facilitate international citizen to citizen / people to people dialogue and cultural relationships. Hampton’s first sister city relationship was launched in the late ’50s with Southampton, which also participated in Hampton’s 350th anniversary celebration.
The author - Vice Mayor George Wallace
Our most recent sister city relationship with Pietermaritzburg was developed after Hampton was sponsored for an Economic Development Partnership, which was fostered and financed by the United State Agency for International Development (USAID). After two and half years in that relationship it was mutually agreed by the two cities to continue in a changed relationship as “Sister Cities.”
Many of the cities in Hampton Roads have sister city relationships, including Portsmouth, Norfolk, Virginia Beach, and Newport News.
At the conclusion of our visit to Southampton we departed for London for one more day of sightseeing before returning home to our missed families.
(Scenic photos courtesy of Wikimedia Commons – Click on any to enlarge)
