IT was a Wharfedale reunion for an Ilkley woman and her French friend who met on the first Ilkley Grammar School exchange with France 60 years ago.

Gillian Hirst, 75, of Kings Road, Ilkley, met Nicole Kayser, 72, of Rueil-Malmaison, France, when as a 15-year-old Mrs Hirst visited Coutainville, a small seaside French town located near Coutances, which is now with Ilkley.

The two have stayed in touch by writing letters over the years and Mrs Hirst visited Mrs Kayser in Paris as recently as May 2004.

However, Mrs Kayser has not visited Mrs Hirst since 1954, when she and her husband lived in Rawdon.

Mrs Kayser said that one of the memories she has of the trip, although not a very fond one, was a visit to Blackpool, a city she found kitsch and kindly described as "surprising".

But Mrs Kayser said: "I was polite, I said nothing."

A laughing Mrs Hirst said: "We took her to Blackpool because we thought she'd never seen anything like it. And she's never been back since!"

Mrs Kayser also had visited Mrs Hirst seven years earlier, in 1947, when she lived in Burley-in-Wharfedale. The trip allowed Mrs Kayser, who was 13 at the time, to brush up on her English.

The main reason for Mrs Kayser's current visit to Ilkley was to celebrate 60 years of Ilkley Grammar School's French exchange, as 49 French students from Coutances are now visiting Ilkley.

To celebrate the first exchange, the two ladies were among several people invited to a special dinner in Ilkley on Monday evening, which was attended by 55 guests including former students who took part in exchanges many years ago.

Sue Robins, Head of Modern Foreign Languages at Ilkley Grammar, said those attending swapped stories and showed each other old photos of their trips to France.

She said: "Everybody who was there would say it was a warm and friendly atmosphere. They were hoping the exchange would continue as successfully in the future."