NNRFA - Looking ahead

View downstream along the Seine. Photo by Herbert Frank via Flickr cc by 2.0

Looking ahead

July 2025

Tour de France! July 2025

Excitement is mounting in Rouen, where the Tour De France will be passing the doors of some of our Rouen hosts.

There are three stages in Normandy:
Tuesday 8th: Stage 4: ends in Rouen
Wednesday 9th: Stage 5: time trial in Caen
Thursday 10th: Stage 6 starts in Bayeux

Rumour has it that keen NNRFA members have slipped across the Channel in the hope of cheering the cyclists along. We hope to share photos if any come our way.

Norwich musicians perform in Rouen

Triorca is a very special youth orchestra that includes talented youngsters from Norwich and its twin cities, Rouen, Koblenz and Novi Sad. Each year the orchestra gathers for a week of rehearsal culminating in a concert in one of the cities.

This year Triorca will be performing in Rouen Cathedral on Friday 11 July at 3pm.

In fact, Rouen is enjoying a feast of music from Norwich that day. Music enthusiasts will also be able to hear Norwich Cathedral Choir giving a lunchtime recital at 12 noon in the church of Saint Maclou as part of a trip that will also include performances in Paris between Monday 7 July and Thursday 10 July. They will sing Evensong in Caen on Friday 11 July. On Saturday 12 July they will sing at the British Normandy Memorial in Ver-sur-Mer during the day, and then a closing concert in Lisieux that evening.

Bastille Day, 14 July, 6.30 till late

Come and celebrate Bastille Day in style with NNRFA and the Alliance Française at Norwich Assembly House!

Tickets are £55.00. Email info@alliance-cam.co.uk to book.

August 2025

Cringleford International Junior Football Tournament

For the 2024 tournament, 40 youngsters and their coaches came to Norwich from Rouen. They clearly had a great time, since this year 60 are coming! NNRFA members will be helping out on the day.

They will be playing on Saturday and Sunday, 2–3 August, and travelling home on Monday 4 August following a reception at City Hall in the morning.

Christine Wilson Pétanque and Picnic in the Park

We meet in Eaton Park on Sunday 17 August, from 10am to 12 noon (date TBC - please check back nearer the time)

Looking further ahead

This is England 2025

The Rouen festival of short films in the English Language will be on 15–22 November this year. Submissions closed on 30 June, and we hope that some films by Norwich filmmakers will be on the programme.

2026 ...

... will include (check back for dates nearer the time):

January: our annual celebration of the Epiphany, French style, enjoying Galettes des Rois

March: group walks

May: our Rouen visitors will come to visit us. Planning is under way and we are looking forward to welcoming them.

... and even further ahead

2027: The year of the Normans, the millennium of William the Conqueror's birth.

Planning has started for massive international celebrations, involving the British Council and the Institut Français. The voice of Norwich is represented by the City Council and the Forum; Triorca; Marion Catlin; Prof Trevor Davies and Gennadiy Ivanov of the Climate Change and Art projects who created the Norwich Mural in the City Hall council chamber.

It is very much hoped that Norfolk Museums and the Cathedral will also be involved. Also that Norwich junior football clubs might join Rouen footballers for an international tournament in Normandy involving also other Norman-related countries,where they came from and where they went: Norway, Sweden, Ireland, Italy (Sicily)...

Also being suggested are events in Normandy, to include folk dancing, choirs, orchestras, pétanque! Watch this space!

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