{"id":330627,"date":"2025-08-09T13:19:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-09T13:19:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/330627\/"},"modified":"2025-08-09T13:19:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-09T13:19:09","slug":"when-visitors-from-france-got-a-real-greenock-welcome-1975","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/330627\/","title":{"rendered":"When visitors from France got a real Greenock welcome (1975)"},"content":{"rendered":"

From the archive…<\/strong><\/p>\n

HOW DO you say “hooch!” in French? That is one problem the French visitors did not have when they were trying to master the intricacies of Scottish Country Dancing.<\/p>\n

Informality and fun were the keynotes of the second official reception for the 12 young visitors from Veulettes and Cany which was held in the Town Hall Saloon last night.<\/p>\n

The first event of the evening, after Provost John Walsh’s brief welcome, was the international ice-breaker – food.<\/p>\n

(Image: Greenock Telegraph)<\/p>\n

An inviting buffet summer was provided and French children mixed with young Scots dancers and Council officials over plates of open sandwiches, sausage rolls, and vol-au-vents.<\/p>\n

Next the guests were treated to a display of dancing from girls of the Peggy McDonald School, which combined the traditional Highland art with modern cabaret.<\/p>\n

The first part of their pro-gramme consisted of Highland and Scottish Country dancing, with a leading role taken by Eithne Cullen who performed a solo sword dance, and Jacqueline McDonald, who sang “Johnny Lad”.<\/p>\n

Eithne and Jacqueline also took a major part in the second half of the programme which was modern cabaret.<\/p>\n

They performed a medley of popular songs and then were joined by the rest of the troupe to go through a routine which included tap dancing, Charleston and a variation of the Flamenco.<\/p>\n

Other Archive News<\/strong><\/p>\n

One of the most enjoyable interludes was when the young dancers each took a French partner and tried to teach them some of the rudiments of Scottish Country dancing, then put their laughing pupils through their paces to the accompaniment of Mr Duncan Brown’s bagpipes.<\/p>\n

The final part of the evening was devoted to more modern dancing to music, provided by Trak Mobile Roadshow, and soon, to a pounding beat, the “entente cordiale” was in full swing.<\/p>\n

(Image: Greenock Telegraph) The young visitors from Veulettes and Cany alongside some of their new Greenock<\/a> friends were also pictured gathered at George Square for a bus tour of the Burns country.<\/p>\n

They were due to call at Culzean Castle and to pay a visit to a big Ayshire holiday camp.<\/p>\n

This article was first published on August 9, 1975.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From the archive… HOW DO you say “hooch!” in French? That is one problem the French visitors did…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":330628,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5309],"tags":[118801,2000,299,36,118800,106762,118798,118802,118799,118803,118804],"class_list":{"0":"post-330627","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-france","8":"tag-eithne-cullen","9":"tag-eu","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-france","12":"tag-french-children","13":"tag-french-visitors","14":"tag-greenock-telegraph","15":"tag-john-walsh","16":"tag-scottish-country-dancing","17":"tag-veulettes","18":"tag-young-dancers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114999011870755628","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=330627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330627\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/330628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=330627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=330627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=330627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}