There has of course over the past many years of collaboration between our two cities been much that has happened...
This page is where we will collect together stories we have collected and anything sent to us by the many people who have been involved in visits to and from Caen over the many years that have passed since we first began our twinning partnership.
The further down this blog post you go, the further back in time you will travel. Right back to before it all began...
The many links to other webpages are here underlined and in bold blue text. If you click on them you will be taken to a much more detailed article about this event.
May 15th 2018
Mayor Making 2018 - Article link and key images to appear here.
May 5th to 7th 2018
The Lord Mayor's Rural and Seaside Show - Southsea Castle. We held a stand on Castle Field, Southsea for all three days. We also invited Portsmouth Ambassadors to come along and help us promote both twinning and of course the Portsmouth Ambassador's Scheme.
In this image are members of the Caen Twinning Committee (soon to be merged with Duisburg), Portsmouth Ambassadors (many of the committee are also Portsmouth Ambassadors) and a representative of the Haifa Portsmouth Friendship Committee.
April 2018
The U3A in Portsmouth visited their counterparts in Caen. Article here.
March 17 to 21st 2018
Here is a link to the article about the 30th Anniversary visit by Caen Council to Portsmouth in snowy March of 2018.
February 1st 2018
Here's a wonderful PowerPoint sent to by Christian Melun of the Comité de jumelage Caen-Portsmouth (Our equivalent in Caen)
He has included a wonderful collection of the past few years of twinning activities in the PowerPoint slide show and it is well worth a look. It begins with the recent visit of myself and the officials from the city of Portsmouth to Caen in November 2017 and goes back to events in 2012 and features some images from right back at the first signing of the twinning charters in 1987.
January 31st 2018
We held a Gala Quiz Night Evening in the Lord Mayor's Banqueting Suite of Portsmouth Guildhall.
December 6th 2017
John Jenkins, who is Portsmouth D-Day Museum's Official Ambassador took a trip to Mémorial in Caen. Read more here
Photo below is of John Jenkins and Brigitte Poirier who is a member of the 'Comité de jumelage Caen-Portsmouth' in Caen:
December 2nd and 3rd 2017
In December Portsmouth Historic Dockyard held the Victorian Festival of Christmas. Visitors from Caen came to visit this festival, with over 120 of them visiting on either the Saturday or the Sunday.
November 2017
Much happened in November 2017. There was the re-signing of the cities' twinning charter in Caen and a committee member visited the British Embassy in Paris to attend the official launch of the Franco-British Museum Project in Ouistreham.
October 22nd 2017
Caen and Portsmouth public service employees competed in the Great South Run in Portsmouth. Read more here.
September 8th 2017
Romain Bail the Mayor of Ouistreham (the port of Caen) came to Portsmouth's Royal naval Museum to launch the Franco-British Museum to be built in Ouistreham. Read more here.
August 25th to 27th 2017
Three bands from Caen played in Portsmouth's Victorious Festival on Southsea Common over the August bank holiday weekend. Read more here.
August 11th & 12th 2017
Members of the Caen-Portsmouth Friendship Committee and the Haifa committee were present all weekend at the Southsea Annual International Kite Festival raising awareness of Portsmouth's International links all over the world . Read more here.
June 8th 2017
In Caen a special evening with Graham Hurley an author who once lived in Portsmouth and wrote books set in Portsmouth, which have been translated into French adapted and serialised by French TV was organised Read more here.
June 6th 2017
The 73rd Anniversary of D-Day was marked in Caen with some of the remaining veterans being transported by ferry from Portsmouth to Ouistreham by London Cabbies in their black cabs. The Lord Mayor of Portsmouth travelled with them and you can read more here about Caen's D-Day commemorations.
A small ceremony was organised by the Royal British Legion at the D-day memorial in Southsea near the South Parade Pier to mark the occasion here. We laid a wreath on behalf of the committee read more here.
May 16th 2017
The new Lord Mayor of Portsmouth Ken Ellcome was inaugurated in a ceremony at Portsmouth's Guildhall. Dignitaries from Caen, Portsmouth Rhode Island, USA and Duisburg in Germany were present read more here.
April 8th and 9th 2017
Caen traders were invited to take over Southsea Castle. They were accompanied by a band from Caen who played in the courtyard read more here.
Spring 2017
The U3A in Portsmouth host their French Friends here in the city.
March 11th 2017
The Westlake Brothers Souvenir group from Caen came to visit Portsmotuh Guildhall as did the French Ambassador to the UK who awarded the Légion d'honneur to two British veterans of World War II read more here.
January 24th 2017
We held our first pub quiz evening in The White Horse, Southsea read more here.
August 14th & 15th 2017
We were at the Southsea International Kite Festival on Southsea Common promoting twinning with Caen and raising funds read more here.
June 2016
A visit from Caen to Portsmouth read more here. Also a further article here.
June 28th 2016
In 2016 St Swithun's School featured in 'The News' as it welcomed its exchange partners to Portsmouth for a day's visit.
November 2015
Caen à l'international was held every year for many years in November on Place Saint Sauveur in Caen - this article details November 2015 and November 2014 events in association with Kings Theatre Southsea read more here.
The Great South Run 2015
In October 2015 these images were taken of the competitors in The Great South Run by the city of Caen.
The Mayor Caen in Portsmouth July 2015.
These images taken by the City of Caen during the Mayor of Caen (Joël Bruneau)'s visit to Portsmouth in 2015.
June 2015
These images were taken by the city of Caen in Portsmouth to commemorate D-Day in 2015.
Spring 2015
The U3A in Portsmouth host their French friends from Caen here in Portsmouth.
Caen à l'international 2014
Portsmouth Visitor Information went to Caen in 2014 for Caen's International Weekend...
The Great South Run 2013
In October 2013 these images were taken of the competitors in The Great South Run by the city of Caen.
Caen à l'international 2013
Portsmouth Visitor Information had a presence in Caen's international weekend in 2013.
September 2013
The French Fire Service from Caen came to visit Hampshire Fire and Rescue here in Southsea. Here is the article on the Hampshire Fire and Rescue website
Summer 2013
The U3A in Portsmouth host their French friends from Caen here in Portsmouth.
2012 - Caen à l'international weekend
The city of Caen held an international weekend. Portsmouth held a stand there, along with many other of Caen's twin cities around the world.
This video was made some young people in Caen, inviting young people from Caen's twin cities to visit Caen... Featuring our very own Jean Barrow around 7 minutes in on the Portsmouth stand....
October 2010 - Great South Run in October
An article about Caen's involvement in the 2010 Great South Run can be found here.
Autumn 2008
Portsmouth Visitor Information held a stand at the Foire de Caen.
Mayor Making 2008
In May of 2008 these photos were taken by the visiting dignitaries from Caen.
6th June 2007 in Caen
These photos supplied by Caen City Hall are of a visit from Portsmouth to Caen to commemorate D-Day in 2007.
Southsea Show 2006
These pictures supplied by Caen City Hall are of the Southsea Show in June 2005 and their marquee promoting the city of Caen to the people of Portsmouth.
June 2005
These pictures supplied by Caen City Council are from their visit to Portsmouth.
June 6th and 7th 1987
There is also this wonderful collection of photos sent to me by Caen City Council of the original signings of the twinning charters which took place in 1987 both here in Portsmouth and in Caen by the then Lord Mayor of Portsmouth, James Lodge and the then Mayor of Caen, Jean-Marie Girault.
December 1986
In December 1986 pre-twinning ceremonies were held in Caen and in Portsmouth. Here are some photographs of this ceremony provided to us by Caen City Hall.
June 6th 1986
On June 6th 1986, the first sailing from Portsmouth to Ouistreham took place. Read more here.