"Our friendship has never wavered over the years," says mayor Marie-Noëlle Biguinet. At the town hall late on Saturday, the marriage hall is packed. Here you can hear French being spoken, there German. The reception, attended by around 100 people, continues the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the twinning between Montbéliard and Ludwigsburg. "The first twinning between a French and a German town since the Second World War," says the mayor.

An award-winning union

In 1950, Lucien Tharradin, then mayor of the City of Princes, initiated a rapprochement with the German town 300 km away, in the northern suburbs of Stuttgart. The partnership between the two towns was recognized on several occasions: by the France-Germany Prize in 1975, the Council of Europe's Flag of Honor in 1989 and the de Gaulle-Adenauer Prize in 1990. On the French side, the local councillors are accompanied by members of partner associations such as Vélocité. On the German side, Matthias Knecht, the counterpart from the other side of the Rhine, is surrounded by a delegation of some 50 people. "I'm proud that people had the courage to take a step towards friendship after the war," he says. On May 8 and 9, Marie-Noëlle Biguinet received the town's honorary citizen's medal in Ludwigsburg. This June 21, it's Biguinet's turn to decorate those involved in the twinning with a medal designed and produced by students in the jewelry-making section of the Lycée des Huisselets.

Time for music

The rest of the evening, as part of the F ête de la musique, led guests to a concert by the Latin Touch group from the Ludwigsburg music school, followed by another by the local municipal band, accompanied for the occasion by the Stadtkapelle from the German town.

Source: www.estrepublicain.fr/