Cercle Français de Winchester
Supported by the Alliance Française de Londres
Welcome
Our aim is to promote the French language and culture in Winchester and surrounding areas. We welcome people with all levels of French with an interest in French.
Monthly evening meetings take place in St Peter’s Pastoral Centre Hall, Jewry Street, Winchester.
Our lectures start promptly at 7.30pm. Doors open at 7pm for a welcome drink.
Our book group meets regularly to read and discuss French books. Members also get together at social events throughout the year.
The Cercle Français de Winchester is supported by the Alliance Française de Londres, one of London’s foremost French language tuition providers. The Alliance Française de Londres proudly supports affiliated French circles which hold an annual programme of lectures and socio-cultural events across the UK. Our mutual endeavours are part of a global network of like-minded associations.
Cercle Français de Winchester is a charity, regulated by the Charity Commission, registration number: 1020086.
Attention New Membership Rates
Click on Membership Information 2024/25 below.
Upcoming Events (click on image for more details)
IMPORTANT
telephone 07966 151129.
Book Club
The Cercle has an active French Reading Group which meets in Winchester every four to six weeks. We all read a French book and discuss it in French at the meeting. Mostly we read novels, but not always. We choose books that are easily obtainable on line and which are not too long. Discussions are completely informal. Meetings are in the evenings (at times arranged to suit the members) and usually last about an hour.
The group would welcome new members. If you are interested in joining or finding out more please use the
contact form and select Book Club Enquiry from drop down contact list.
The programme for 2024/25 is:
Our History
The first ever meeting of the then Alliance Française de Winchester was held in St. Paul’s Church Hall on Tuesday, July 8th, 1941 and the speaker was Capitaine Barlone of the Free French Forces, who “gave an admirable and moving account of the war from the point of view of a French soldier, an account based on his own experiences” (Hampshire Chronicle, July 12th, 1941).
Following the success of this first meeting it was decided to inaugurate a season of talks, beginning on Tuesday, October 7th, 1941.
In these early days, when France was a defeated and occupied country, many of the speakers were members of the Free French Forces and their talks had patriotic and morale-boosting titles, such as “France has lost a battle, but not the war” and “How France is resisting”. Indeed, as the war progressed the Alliance received first-hand accounts of the physical and psychological damage which was being wreaked upon the French people.
Emphasis was placed on hope for the future, however, and eventually, by 1945, the speakers could talk about victories, such as the Battle of Normandy, which was graphically described by Professor Contamine of the University of Caen, whilst a talk by Mlle. Anne Marie Bauer of the French Resistance about her two-year internment in Ravensbruck concentration camp had the immediacy then that a talk by a released conflict hostage would have today.
The yearly subscription was eight shillings and sixpence in 1941 but it was reduced to five shillings in 1942 because of the problem in getting speakers to come to Winchester owing to “difficulties of travel, especially in trains to and from London”. Plus ça change!
Not all the meetings were devoted to political themes; there were musical recitals, “lantern lectures” on French art and architecture, an exhibition of rare French books and manuscripts, and tea-time “get-togethers” for French conversation at the Cadena Café and Cercle Français de Winchester, as it is now known, continues this tradition of fostering an understanding of historical and contemporary French themes.
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How To Find Us
Address:
St Peter’s Pastoral Centre Hall, Jewry Street, Winchester
Jewry St, Winchester, SO23 8RY