Germany, England, Spain, Italy, Morocco, Romania, Vietnam… Blois has been forging links with its twinned cities and developing cooperative efforts.
Twinning
In addition to “historic” twinning with the towns of Lewes (Great Britain) and Waldshut-Tiengen (Germany), since 1995 the town of Blois has been twinned with Weimar (Germany).The two associations managing the twinnings, the twinning committee for the first two and the Blois-Weimar association for the third, organize diversified activities: school exchanges, journeys of discovery, exhibitions, concert and theater hosting, summer job programs. They are also involved in town-based events such as the Carnival and the rendezvous with history. The town of Blois is also twinned with Sighisoara (Romania).
In 2003, Blois and the town of Urbino (Italy) signed a friendship agreement, subsequent to which the Dante Alighieri association initiated a number of events: a week of Italian cinema, courses in the Italian language and cuisine. A similar friendship agreement was signed in June 2009 with the town of Cáceres (Spain). The agreement was concretized in November 2009 in a meeting between the youth council of Cáceres and the education department of the town of Blois and a cultural exchange on choral singing during the 2010 “lyres of summer”.
Cooperation
As regards cooperation, in 2007 the town of Blois engaged in partnership with the town of Hue (Vietnam) built around initiatives on urban heritage promotion, public lighting gardens, game areas for children… and flood prevention. And each year, the town of Blois facilitates the hosting of students from Hue in the national Val de Loire engineering school.
Lastly, the town has signed a cooperation protocol with town of Azrou, which is located in the Meknès-Tafilalet region of Morocco, region with which the Centre regional council had previously established a cooperation agreement. Given its sizable Moroccan community and determination to develop cooperative activities with the Maghreb populations, Blois has decided to be part of a dynamic of exchange and sharing of culture and experience. The main areas of cooperation consist in policies pertaining to youth, sports, culture and tourism, along with exchanges of experiences and skills between the staffs of the two communities.
