On 5 February 1908, two little girls were born at 18 Riley Road, Brighton. They were the conjoined twins, Daisy and Violet Hilton.
Five weeks later, Tristan Bernard published his comedy Les Jumeaux de Brighton [The Brighton Twins ].
Title screen of the 1936 film version of the Bernard play. Rights owner sought
You have taken off in a small private plane from Brighton City Airport at Shoreham-by-Sea. The plane heads directly due south. About 40 minutes and 177 km later you pass over the coast of France at Ouistreham. Your pilot follows the course of the river Orne. Below you, you spot a white gash amid the pattern of green fields.
The port of Ouistreham, the Orne river and its canal. In the bottom left-hand corner, the modern outskirts of Caen. (c) Google
Photo: S. Hinton 29 November 2021 Photo taken on the walkway above the Madeira Arches.
Don’t graffiti.
Don’t graffiti if your French grammar not accurate.
Don’t graffiti even if your sentiments would be approved by many people.
Jan Mulreany shares her passion.
You might not think you would ever encounter a full set of cornemuses Auvergnates or cabrettes [bagpipes from the Auvergne region] in a Sussex pub, nor hear the wail of a French hurdy-gurdy as you come round the corner in Shoreham, but for the last thirty years someone has been doing this in Brighton, and dancing to it too.
Dansez Français demonstrate their skills at the Centenary celebrations of the Brighton and Hove French Circle. Her Majesty the Queen gazes benevolently at the Breton flag. The Hove Club, 2015. Image: Suzanne Hinton.
We all love looking down on a tiny town model (plan relief). This is nothing new.
Brighton Gazette 8 September 1825 (Courtesy of British Newspaper Archive)
James Tissot “Too Early” (1873) Source unknown
After being wounded in the Franco Prussian-war, and having briefly supported the Paris Commune in 1871, Jacques-Joseph Tissot made his way to London. There he settled from some 11 years. He found immediate success. The public and most critics admired the “delicacy of tone” in his pictures of “pretty English girls”. Continue reading
Originally tucked away in Providence Place, but now chased out by re-development in London Road, this tiny shop has spread its wings and flown down to 165 Kings Road Arches. It now goes under the name of Tutton and Young’s Atelier by the seaside. Still a great choice for buying exquisite small works of art or booking into a course on embroidery, jewellery, drawing, painting and many more.
Next stop should be perhaps one of the several Atelier de vin in Brighton. The one below is at Seven Dials.
If romance should blossom in L’Atelier du Vin, and wedding bells might be going to ring, the Atelier Gold Brighton is the place to go. Stunning wedding gowns and a warm welcome from the couturière, Roxy, are waiting at 80B St James’s Street.
However, before putting on the wonderful gown, the bride or the groom should be coiffed at Atelier 66 Hair Avenue at a discrete, unphotographed address in Dyke Road. There she or he can benefit from a French blayage [hair colouring] or many other L’Oréal treatments. The client can watch an introductory video – Le hair show – part of which, La masterclass, is essential viewing.
Not an atelier, but brilliantly named – Hair du Jour is run by French cousins, Stéphane Rault from Paris and Johan Barbaçon from Brittany, at 63 London Road. Another gem of Anglo-French fusion.
What do these allotments, photographed in October 1963, have to do with a 13th century French king?
Allotments in East Brighton, 7 October 1963. Looking north with Henley Road running left to right. Houses in Wilson Avenue on far right. (c) Regency Society, James Gray Collection, Vol 23_123
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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French Brighton 