PARLEZ vous Francais? Skiptonians are being urged to brush up on their French language skills as tentative steps are taken towards a new twinning venture.

Skipton town councillors have announced that they are investigating the possibility of twinning with Les-Clayes-Sous-Bois.

The French town has 17,000 inhabitants and is 27 kilometres west of Paris and 12 kilometres from Versaille.

Coun Polly English told fellow members that the town had been selected as it was a similar size to Skipton in a rural setting.

She added that councillors had initially opted for a French twin because travelling there was easy, and school children tended to learn French before they learnt German.

Coun Audrey Thornton said Skipton had enjoyed almost 20 successful years of twinning with the German town of Simbach, and she would be reluctant to do anything that might weaken those links.

Simbach Society member Geoff Hoyle told the Herald that many bigger towns did twin with more than one place but he thought this new venture might have a negative impact on the relationships already formed in Simbach.

Mr Hoyle added that it had been difficult to find local residents to support twinning with Simbach and host visiting guests.

"It has always been a bit of a struggle in Skipton to get enough support and enthusiasm for the existing town twinning, so I can't see the need for extending it.

"However, I don't want to knock the idea. I am very keen on town twinning and in an ideal world we should all be big pals."

The idea was raised when the town council received a letter from United Cities, an agency which lists towns looking for a twin.

o Dignitaries from Simbach will be making a civic visit to Craven in July.

Mayor of Simbach Richard Findl sent a letter to Skipton Town Council suggesting the party came over from July 19 to 22.