Sarah Muir shares her story with us...

This summer I was lucky enough to win the Alice Burnett Twinning scholarship. This meant that I was able to spend a month living and working in Haddington’s twin town: Aubigny sur Nère, in the Centre region of France. I lived with four different families, and did three weeks of work experience at the Tourist Information Office. After six years of studying French in school I was really excited to go to Aubigny and be properly immersed in the culture.

I arrived on the Thursday before the Fêtes Franco-Ecossaises, where I realised I’d travelled for three hours only to end up in ‘Little Scotland’ where the locals (embarrassingly) seemed to know a lot more about Scottish history than I did! The Fêtes are a weekend of festivities that celebrate the shared history of Scotland and France as a result of the Auld Alliance. There were re-enactments, fireworks, parades and pipe bands from across Europe. It was a great social event, and I only briefly lost my novelty ‘Scottish person’ status for a couple of hours when I helped out at the omelette stall.

Working from ten until five, five days a week isn’t everyone’s idea of a summer holiday, but it was a fantastic experience, and so much better than sitting about at home in Haddington. My thick Scottish accent and bad grammar didn’t always go down well, but being able to help the tourists enjoy their holiday was a wonderful feeling. I also did a lot of translation work for the website, and now when you call up the Sauldre and Sologne Tourist Office it’s my voice on the English answer machine message!

I’ve got so many great memories of my time away, not just of the festivals and day trips, but also of the more day-to-day things: dancing around to French pop music, teaching some of the girls how to do a Highland Fling, getting a ride on a combine harvester and learning to make proper crepes (and then being given a crêpe pan with typical Aubigny generosity).

The scholarship gave me a fantastic month; some fantastic stories and now my appetite’s been whetted I can’t wait to return to France!