Bailliage de Londres : bulletin de mai 2012

Des nouvelles du Bailliage de Londres…Nous apprécions toujours de recevoir des informations des bailliages. Découvrez la vie bretvine de nos amis de Londres :

Did you know that a BRETVIN is the new Prime Minister of France French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault

Forthcoming events

Bailliage de la Grande Bretagne Autumn Chapter see below and make a note in your diary

Alcester Boul ;es & Brochettes (date TBA 15 or 22 July) This is always an entertaining event and it’s about time we won the trophy which we originally presented to Alcester. It would be good to get a team together to challenge our Alcester confreres !! Chevaliers interested in attending please contact the chancelier . Golden Bottle Nantes November 2012 date TBA . Bailliage du Pays de Galles. If your diary extends to 2013, then make an entry that 20th – 22nd September the Welsh Bailliage will be celebrating their 20th Anniversary with a terrific programme culminating with their chapter in the Council Chamber of City Hall followed by banquet in the Marble Hall of City Hall. Full details will be circulated in due course.

Bailliage de la Grande Bretagne Autumn Chapter…. make a note in your diary

Our chapter will be on Thursday 15th November 2012 at the Oriental Club, Your council felt that the Oriental Club accommodated us extremely well last year with good facilities for the chapter and reception, together with an excellent banquet dinner at a cost, which for a London venue was very reasonable. We are also pleased that we are able to maintain the cost at £99 per head this year. Further details in August.

Members are reminded that concessions are available to members under 35 years of age attending our annual chapters. This subsidy is also extended to each member’s partner / guest. Also, new candidates attending their intronisation at the chapter will be charged 50% of the chapter cost and this is also extended to the candidate’s partner/guest. Members wishing to bring guests under 35, will be charged 50% of chapter cost for the first guest but any additional guests (this includes partner) will be charged at the full chapter cost

News from around the Bailiages

Chapter Bailliage du Pays de Galles. 28-29 March. Report from Maitre de Logis Robin Kershaw

“Our choice of pub was spot on. .It was about 10 mins drive from Fonmon .We arrived at the Castle on the dot and the sun was out …as predicted. The sun always shines for the Welsh chapter !! . I was greeted with a glass ..or two… of Muscadet to help me change into my robes Very thoughtful especially as it was only 10.30 am. We spent about an hour on the lawn nattering with fellow confreres. They were such a hospitable group. Quite a few of the hosts particularly the wives were still very complimentary about our 40th anniversary weekend, singling out the lunch at the Squadron as the highlight. (To think that I was against it as the boat trip might have been in bad weather ! ) Whilst sipping Le Muscadet on the terrace that wonderful photographer Richard Bosworth was taking photos which are now attached to this report. Whilst still sober we spent some considerable time getting into our “correct” positions (linked to rank) for the grand Bretvins procession from the terrace to the bottom of the garden…and back. Exhausting ! this was followed by the group photo. The chapter ceremony, slightly different to ours, was most enjoyable with two new Chevaliers welcomed. I was also intrigued to see that they used three members to carry out the duties that are so adroitly handle by our Echanson single handily. The meeting having finished we changed out of our robes and joined the girls for lunch. It was an extremely enjoyable meal taken at a leisurely pace and fortified by a seemingly never-ending supply of Muscadet and Paul Mas Syrah/Viognier Pays d’Oc. Bailli Anthony Pugh welcomed the guests, 3 from Nantes, 2 from Guernsey, 2 Alcester and us 2 from GB. I got the impression that this was a number that best suited our hosts as the dinning room at Fonmon is not able to accommodate more than the 80 that attended the lunch. We staggered back to the pub somewhere around teatime, I think. It was a wonderful chapter ….with the sun beating down.. ,an enjoyable ceremony …,a terrific lunch,…an abundance made all the better with excellent wine and above all the generous hospitality of the Chevaliers of the Pays De Galles and their wives ,Moira and I shared a very memorable day”

Robin & Moira surrounded by Bailli Jeremy Howell, Alcester, Bailli Anthony Pugh Wales. Wade Emmerson Guernsey, Jean Richard Connétable Nantes and Peter Andrews Bailli Emeritus Wales

Photographs kindly supplied by Richard Bosworth ( r.bosworth@btopenworld.com)

The Confrerie d’Alcester’s annual Chapter 28th/29th April.

On the Saturday evening, an excellent dinner was held in Hiller’s Bistro, serving food from the nearby Ragley Hall Estate. It was well attended , with a good contingent from Nantes, and your Bailli and his wife, Marjatta, met many old friends from Alcester.

The weather on Sunday was dreadful and, for the first time, the traditional procession to the Town Hall was cancelled. However, a welcoming glass was provided before the ceremony, where you Bailli was joined by your Maitre de Logis, Robin Kershaw. During the ceremony, the Bailli of Alcester gave a detailed report of the preceding year, showing just how active they are, and 3 new members were deemed to be worthy of the Bretvins and were duly intronised. After the ceremony and copious quantities of Muscadet, a substantial lunch was provided in the turreted Salford Hall hotel.

10th Anniversary Chapter Bailliage Berlin Brandenburg

It would be fair to say that the Anniversary Celebration was an extremely enjoyable weekend. Our small delegation consisted of our Bailli John Cunynghame and his wife Marjatta, Gerald and Liz Alfille, Erik Johnson and Colin Simpson whose wife Gilly had to pull out just hours before leaving on doctor’s orders.

Friday. In normal Bretvin style with these sorts of occasions ….we had to be on the bus by 8.00am for a conducted tour of Berlin which lasted till lunchtime. The English speaking chevaliers and wives were all on the same bus and must admit that we had a wonderful guide who explained extremely well the pain and suffering Berliners went through at the time of the Berlin Wall, the Cold War. We did …and saw everything that a good tourist should do !!

Group in front of Brandenburg Gate The ‘old codgers’ Chevaliers Johnson, Simpson & Alfille wearing the issued Bretvins scarves

Saturday. The morning was dedicated to a tour of Potsdam, a truly magnificent city with no less than 22 places built by various emperors .. Frederick’s or Wilhelm’s !! The visit lasted the whole morning with lunch very near the biggest and the best of the palaces…Sans Souci. (Frederick The Great’s summer palace) On the day of our visit the luncheon venue was hosting a vintage and classic car display. After lunch back to the hotel to get into our Bretvins robes in preparation for the procession to the chapter. The bus dropped us off in the town centre where we spent some considerable time getting into the Bretvin procession line ensuring the correct order of march. We were accompanied by the Berlin Black Kilt Pipe Band. which was really very good playing all the well known Scottish marching tunes.

Head of the procession Black Kilt Pipe Band Team GB delegation

The procession passed through the centre of Potsdam to The Church of Peace where the chapter was held . There were 5 intronisations that included 2 Dames de la Duchesse Anne.

Chapter held in the Church of Peace

The Anniversary banquet was held that evening in the hotel dinning room. Plenty of speeches by the outgoing Bailli Gerhard Franzen and the new Bailli Manfred Bauer. The Lord Mayor of Potsdam made his welcoming speech. The dinner was a bit disrupted by a constant flow of people popping out to catch up with the score of the Chelsea vs Munich European cup final. The Brits finally sat down with big smiles !! Our Bailli John Cunynghame presented Gerhard with a silver framed photo taken in Nantes at the Bretvin 60th Anniversary of the Grand maitre with all his Baillis (11 in all) on a podium with the then Mayor of Nantes (Jean-Marc Ayrault now PM of France). For the new Bailli of Berlin -Brandenburg a glass tankard engraved for the London Olympics suitably further engraved with the Bretvin logo and good wishes from Bailliage GB. And for the Lord Mayor of Potsdam a fine table-top book with photos of “the best of Britain”.

Our Bailli presenting gifts to Gerhard Franzen and the lord Mayor at the Chapter Banquet

It was an excellent weekend and achieved everything one would expect from a Bretvins gathering…good hospitality…good camaraderie and most importantly an appreciation of “Le Muscadet”

“Bois le vin Sois bon Comme lui”

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