Discover Crestview's sister city
All you need to know about visiting Crestview's sister city
Have you ever yearned to really explore a foreign country, on your own, with the benefit of an insider’s perspective? If you’ve ever taken a “package” tour, how often did you gaze from the tour bus window and wish you could escape its confines and plunge into the cultures whizzing past your window, staying among the locals and learning about their ways of life firsthand?
People from Crestview and Northwest Florida have just such a rare and enviable opportunity. At the invitation of Crestview’s sister city, a contingent from our area will visit Noirmoutier, France, for their celebration of the 65th anniversary of the liberation of France at the end of World War II.
Our May 2010 visit to Noirmoutier will most definitely not be a follow-the-sheep package tour. Participants are arranging their own air transportation to France — some to Paris, others to Nantes, the closest major city to Noirmoutier. Our French friends will greet us at the Nantes train station or airport. From there we will be taken to Noirmoutier, where during our visit we will be the honored guests in a French home of our local hosts. There we will experience Noirmoutrin hospitality and home life up close and personal.
Our hosts are arranging a gala weekend’s celebration. Several special events are being planned just for Noirmoutier’s honored guests from Northwest Florida, including a dinner with Mayor Noël Foucher and members of the city’s sister city committee, and a reception with a retired French military hero. After the celebration weekend, there will be ample time to explore the island, go to the beach, etc. Then the Noirmoutier sister city committee has arranged a private motorcoach tour to the D-Day landing beaches, with a side trip to Mont Ste. Michel, the amazing fortress church soaring from an offshore island.
During World War II, many thousands of young Americans gave their lives to restore freedom to the oppressed people of Noirmoutier and France. Your presence during this 65th anniversary observation will be a moving testament to our nations’ long friendship, dating back to our Revolutionary War. Your Noirmoutrin hosts eagerly await your visit so they may personally express their gratitude for America’s part in their liberation.
We hope you will join us for this very special, very unique opportunity to see for yourself the many benefits of our sister city relationship with Noirmoutier.
PERTINENT DETAILS
• Dates: Most of the celebration takes place the weekend of May 8-9. To be refreshed and ready to enjoy all that is planned, most of us will depart Florida on May 5, arriving the next morning.
You may schedule your return to Florida anytime after May 14. Several members of the group are taking advantage of this opportunity to be in Europe to further explore Paris, France or elsewhere in Europe on their own.
• Airfare: Visitors from Crestview are making their own flight arrangements. Prevailing fares from Northwest Florida Regional Airport (VPS) to Paris-Charles DeGaulle airport (CDG) are approximately $970. Some people are flying into Nantes from Pensacola at additional expense. (Nantes is the closest biggest city to Noirmoutier.)
• Transfers: The Crestview sister city organization will provide detailed instructions so you can make the easy transfer from Charles deGaulle Airport in Paris via public transportation to the Montparnasse train station, where we will catch a high-speed TGV express to Nantes. Advance train ticket purchase is recommended. We will gladly offer advice in making your train reservations through Rail Europe (www.raileurope.com), the U.S. representative of the French national railroad company SNCF.
A motorcoach will transport the group to Noirmoutier from Nantes. Please coordinate your arrival with other Crestview visitors, as only one chartered bus will depart for the island. However, if you wish to arrive earlier or later, public buses run periodically from the Nantes main train station to Noirmoutier.
• Accommodations: While on Noirmoutier, our group will stay with local host families, who will also offer us meals in their homes. They will show us around the island and make sure we are transported to the various planned events. This is an extraordinary opportunity to see another land and culture from an insider’s perspective. While there is no cost, it is traditional to bring gifts representative of Crestview and Florida to our hosts.
• Costs: In addition to your airfare, expect to pay for added expenses such as train fare to and from Nantes if you fly into Paris; some meals, souvenirs, plus any additional expenses should you wish to extend your vacation to explore Paris, France, and/or elsewhere in Europe. (London, for example, is just a 2 1/2-hour Eurostar train ride through the Channel Tunnel from Paris.)
Train fares currently range from $70 each way for second-class seats to $98 for first-class seats for the TGV express from Paris to Nantes. (The TGV is one of Europe’s fastest express trains.) Visit www.raileurope.com for more up-to-the-minute fares and to make reservations as your trip approaches. In addition, travel agents such as AAA Travel can book directly with RailEurope on your behalf.
In addition, the Crestview sister city committee requests participants to help support the organization through dues of $20 per individual; $30 per family (or couple); $2 for students; or $50 for an organization (church, school, business, social organization, etc.).
Included events, May 8-13, 2010
May 8: A parade through town of more than 40 U.S. World War II military vehicles, followed by bivouac outside of town; a parachute jump over the town castle; the Bonnotte Festival (the Bonnotte is a famous new potato from Noirmoutier renowned all over the world.); and a commemorative dinner and ball. Throughout the day, World War II-era music and a jazz band will be playing throughout town.
May 9: Church service in the morning at St. Philbert’s, followed by a picnic near the beach; island tour, including surviving “Atlantic Wall” fortifications such as former German blockhouses and gun emplacements; visit to the World War I U.S. base at La Fosse; gala dinner for the dignitaries and sister city guests.
May 10: Free day with host families, evening reception at the home of French Gen. Viard, a local retired military hero.
May 11: Free day with host families, evening dinner with Noirmoutier Mayor Noël Faucher, members of the Noirmoutier sister city committee, and your host family.
May 12-13: Excursion via private motorcoach to the D-Day landing beaches in Normandy, including stops at Mont Ste. Michel and Chartres cathedral, including an overnight stay in Normandy. The trip will be accompanied by Dr. Marie-Thérèse Reed, an English-speaking retired history professor and member of the Noirmoutier sister city committee, whose insight and experience has made similar visits for previous guests from Northwest Florida more vivid and personal. Cost is €100 (about $140).
For More Information
Members of the Crestview sister city committee will be glad to answer questions you may have about this exciting, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to visit our sister city during its commemoration of the 65th anniversary of the end of World War II. In addition, you may stop by the News Bulletin's office at 295 W. James Lee Blvd. and pick up an informational brochure, information on flights from Northwest Florida Regional Airport to Paris, and train schedules from Paris to Nantes.
• Isabelle & Jim Mills, President, Crestview Sister City Organization, 682.8215
• Pam & Joe Coffield, Crestview Sister City Organization, 682.8437, or
• Brian Hughes, Crestview News Bulletin, 682.6524.
