ENTENTE CORDIALE - YOUNG PEOPLE
Whether through educational exchange, twin-town projects, cultural and sporting encounters, or simply meeting along the backpacker trail, young people today are a vital driving force in creating closer international understanding.
In Scotland and France alike, today's children, teenagers and young adults are sure to be the most Continentally-minded, cosmopolitan and best-travelled generation our countries have yet known. Opportunities to study or work abroad are continually expanding, from school and university partnerships, to the gap-year standbys of au pairing, language teaching, and the hospitality trades, creating a broad cross-cultural basis of shared experience.
In celebration of these connections, and the exciting future they herald, a major flagship event in the Entente Cordiale centenary programme an official reception was held in Paris for young people, hosted by the French President Jacques Chirac and attended by Tony Blair, on Europe Day, May 9. Other highlights of the Scottish, French and UK programmes include the launching in France of a European universities' network, the 'European Ivy League'; the opening of a UK office by the EduFrance Agency, aimed at promoting French higher education to British students, and a child-friendly introduction to French language and culture courtesy of Théâtre Sans Frontières, on tour with their production of Aladdin and the Enchanted Lamp.
Expect a sizeable Scottish youth contingent, too, at July's maritime extravaganza in Brest, with many schools, youth organisations and student groups planning further activities at a more local level.
