Welcome to Les Amitiés Françaises,Godalming

 

 

Latest News

Info’Mail December 2024

Thursday, 12th December 2024 Le Canal du Midi Présentation par Peter Prowse Avec un ami, Peter a fait en septembre 2023 les 150km du Canal du Midi à vélo, de Toulouse à Sète, le port au bord de la Méditerranée où est né et enterré le chanteur Georges Brassens. Pendant...

Info’Mail November 2024

Thursday, 14th November 2024   Seurat et la mer Présentation par Karen Serres   La conférence examine les marines peintes par l’artiste français Georges Seurat (1859–1891) lors de ses séjours sur la côte de la Manche à la fin du XIXe siècle. Ces œuvres feront l’objet...

Report on the Programme 2023 – 2024

Our series of lectures started in September 2023 at the Guildford and Godalming Rugby Club at Broadwater Pavilion. We continued using a hybrid system offering our members a choice of attending the lecture at the Pavilion or linking up on-line via Zoom. Our programme...

Minutes of 2023 AGM

The 34th Annual General Meeting of Les Amitiés Françaises de Godalming  (formerly Les AmitiésFrançaises de Waverley). was held on Thursday 19th October 2023 at 7 p.m. at the Guildford Rugby Pavilion and by ZOOM Video-conference.     Attendance and apologies: 29...

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. 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

2024- 2025 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.

  Where do we meet?

We are now holding our lectures at the Oglethorpe Hall in the Wilfrid Noyce Centre, in the Crown Court Car Park in the centre of Godalming. We are also 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.