Welcome to Les Amitiés Françaises,Godalming

 

 

Latest News

Info’Mail September 2023

Pour les Amitiés, c'est la rentrée!   Thursday, 21 September 2023 Quand la Louisiane était française Louis XIV décide de peupler cette lointaine mais immense contrée qui s’étend alors sur plusieurs des états américains d’aujourd’hui. Il y envoie des architectes pour...

Info’Mail June 2023

Bonjour, In May we had the pleasure to welcome Christine Nivet.  She gave deep and original analyses of the impressionist paintings that she selected from the Chicago collection where she worked for years..  This month, this Thursday 15 June in fact, we have something...

Info’Mail May 2023

Two meetings: 18 amd 25 May The month of May is special this year as there will be two meetings, one on 18 May as planned at the start of the 22-23 season and one on 25 May instead of the April meeting when Christine Nivet could not make it. We are delighted to see...

AGM Report 2022

The AGM was held at the Guildford Rugby Pavilion and by ZOOM on the 20th October 2022. In the absence of the President the meeting was chaired by the Secretary (Alan Liddle). 35 members were present at the Pavilion and 17 attended by ZOOM. The Treasurer (Brian John),...

Welcome to the Amitiés Françaises, Godalming

We are a community based group and our sole purpose is to enable you to experience France by providing lectures; reading French literature or visit locations with French connections. 

Two nations with a shared history – sometimes of confrontation and war, more recently as allies – but often eyeing one another with a degree of suspicion and mutual incomprehension. A relationship not helped by what seems to be a particular difficulty in mastering each other’s language, especially the spoken word.

For almost 30 years though, a local society, with the support of the Alliance Française de Londres, has been doing what it can to break down some of these barriers. Founded in 1989, on the initiative of a Belgian married to an Englishman, Les Amitiés Françaises Godalming now has around 100 members with an interest in all things French.

Our main activity is to organise an annual programme of ten lectures based on France or French activities. Click on Programme to look at the list of lectures for the current year and see a review of the lectures we had during the previous year.

French art is always a popular topic, as are talks giving an insight into French history, but it is not all high culture.

We also run a Cercle Littéraire, where a group of people choose a number of French books for reading over the season. Each month, the group meet together to discuss their readings. Click on Cercle Littéraire to see the books chosen for the current year.

Of course, no society with a focus on France can ignore the French love of food and drink. So each year Les Amitiés celebrates the Fête des Rois (Epiphany) with a dinner including the traditional Galette des Rois, with the person finding the hidden fève (token) being crowned king or queen. Each July, Bastille Day is celebrated with a festive evening, which, given good weather, continues under the stars.

In addition, each year we organise a number of events to locations with a French connection, e.g. Goodwood – where they have a ceramics collection from Sèvres, Paris. Please click on the Events page to see what is organised for the current year.

Les Amitiés is always welcoming new members and visitors to its meetings, so if you have a reasonable knowledge of French and an interest in French lifestyle and culture, why not give it a try?

You do not need to be totally fluent to join us and enjoy our activities. If you are interesting in joining us please go to our Membership page.

We will make you very welcome, and please ensure you introduce yourself to a Member of the Committee.

 

Members Activities & Events

2021 - 2022 Programme

The programme of lectures for the current year can be seen here.

Cercle Littéraire

The list of readings for the current year can be seen here as well as the dates to meet to discuss your readings

Member's Events

Please look at this section for the details of any planned events

Memberships

Please click on the Membership page above for details on Membership.

Post COVID update 

We are now holding our lectures at Guilford Rugby Pavilion as well as continuing to use the ZOOM video application. For those members who prefer to link up from home, the link to connect to the ZOOM lecture is sent out the day before the lecture. The additional benefit of ZOOM is that it allows members living some distance away from Godalming, the ability to link in and see the lectures.