‘Best Yet’ Christmas Market For Thame Twinners

A GROUP from Thame, including the Mayor, Nigel Champken-Woods, returned triumphant last night from Montesson in France, after a weekend selling English products in their French twin?s annual Christmas market.
The Thame stallholders threw their all into their roles and would have given their counterparts in a Marrakech bazaar a run for their money (apart from the mayor who, sporting a rather Wagnerian Father Christmas hat, complete with plaits, would probably have been arrested).
They completely sold out of Christmas cards, Christmas pudding, Brandy butter, orange marmalade – and Christmas crackers which are still a novelty in France.
For the children of Montesson, the Thame Twin Sets (our very own, ?Stitch & Bitch? group) had hand-knitted miniature jumpers and scarves to fit small teddy bears ? or in one case (see picture), a treasured frog.
Apart from some showers on the Saturday morning, which temporarily brought water cascading in through the canvas walls of their shelter, the rest of the weekend was fine and mild, reaching at one point, 19 degrees Celsius, which put some urgency into the work of a sculptor shaping a wonderful angel out of a block of ice with a chain saw!
Hot coffee and cake (made to a special recipe of the Queen Mother?s), was provided by an English ex-patriot to sustain the, by Sunday, rather hoarse Thame contingent. The Montesson twinning committee kindly provided crepes and galettes to keep them going throughout the day and the German?s from Baesweiler, sold hot spiced wine to keep up the spirits.
As usual the Montesson families who hosted the English, many of whom themselves were involved in running stalls, nonetheless excelled themselves with wonderful food and convivial company in the evenings -the top topic of conversation being the forthcoming elections in France and the chances of S