In March 1920 Pamela Stirling was born, an ordinary little girl to an ordinary family in Wandsworth, Surrey. Replace the word “ordinary” with “extraordinary” and that is much nearer the truth.
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The French Honorary Consul 1821 and 2021
Early in 2021 Frederic Laloux was appointed French Honorary Consul for Brighton and Newhaven. M. Laloux is the most recent incumbent of an official post reaching back to at least 1821. This post is unpaid, apart from expenses. It occasionally carries the title Vice-Consul as the local consuls (there are about 30 across the UK) report to the Consul Général in London.
Brighton as the first Honorary French Consul would have known it in the 1820s. Image (c) Regency Society / Society of Brighton Print Collectors
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Hove Francophiles
Great to see Œuf café open once more. English afternoon tea (egg sandwiches, anyone?) and a beautifully secluded garden in Third Avenue.
Let’s hope that the name of this house [My Dream] in Marmion Road lives up to its occupants’ expectations.
Do the owners of La Mouette [The Seagull] in Windlesham Avenue support Brighton and Hove Albion, or do they just love the bird?
Brighton-Biarritz 1938 and 1946
This badge is tangible proof of the fact that there was once a close link between Brighton and Biarritz going back nearly a century.
Delegates badge 1938 – Courtesy of the Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove
Biarritz had hosted a delegation of Brighton worthies in 1932 with a view to forming tourism and cultural ties between the two towns.
It was now Brighton’s duty to return the French hospitality. Not an easy or cheap task for Brighton to emulate the generous hospitality of the French town. At first, a visit to Brighton was projected for 1933 but did not take place. Continue reading
Brighton-Biarritz 1932
Brighton and Biarritz have much in common: they are former fishing towns (mackerel for Brighton, whales for Biarritz); their growth depended much on royal patronage; they are successful tourist towns.
Seajet 1979-1980
« Mesdames et messieurs, nous venons FOILBORNE »
This was the triumphant announcement heard on 29 April 1979 in Brighton Marina. The English translation which followed might not have been much more enlightening:
“Ladies and gentlemen we are FOILBORNE”
The announcement was made on the first voyage of the Seajet hydrofoil service between Brighton and Dieppe. This was an exciting new adventure setting out from an exciting new marina. The high-speed vessel, the Normandy Princess, was underway.
Napoleon the Third in Brighton
Napoleon the Third was well established in Brighton from the mid-1850s and was there for nigh on one hundred years. That is to say, a beer seller, Arthur Hollingbrook at 13 Cheapside, decided to celebrate the coming of the second French Empire and its emperor by renaming his beer house as the ‘Napoleon the Third’.
Brighton’s French Music Festival, 1881 (2)
Just a year ago, in my blog about Brighton’s 1881 Music Festival, I stated: “A great part of the success of the Festival does seem to have been due to the excellent organisation by Chérifel de la Grave.”
Should I have been more alive to this newspaper report?
The national press went a little further in criticism of the practical arrangements of the Festival:
Were there flaws in the organisation? Well, the chief conductor of the participating Orphéon from Châlons-sur-Marne certainly thought so. His 50-page account of his band’s trip to Brighton is very revealing.
Check your facts, M. Manevy
The Labour Party was in power. The Labour Party was in town. In Brighton, on 3 October 1966. All was not well in the state of Britain. The French newspapers did not hesitate to mention the fact: Prime Minister Harold Wilson was announcing a pay freeze; 750 strikers from car-plants in the Middlands (sic) had marched on Brighton and were shouting, according to Paris-presse, l’Intransigeant newspaper, at members of the cabinet:
Brighton Francophiles
Many thanks to Jim Grozier (Francophile 1) for this photo taken in Hertford Road, Brighton. Many thanks to the residents (Francophiles 2 and 3) for their chirpy display. Apart from Bonne Santé, what more can we wish for 2021?
