A delegation from Hopkinsville’s sister city, Carentan, France, has returned to town to peek into the economic side of the region and explored Nashville on Wednesday.
Hopkinsville and Carentan became sister cities in 2019 when a French delegation from the town visited to acknowledge the contributions of Fort Campbell soldiers in World War II. Soldiers from the 101st liberated Carentan from Nazi control in the days following the D-Day Invasion of Normandy in 1944.
This year’s delegation includes business, education and government leaders from Carentan. One of the delegation members is Arnaud Fossey the president of the Isigny-Sainte-Mère Dairy Plant in Normandy near Carentan.
In Nashville, the delegation went to the 1 Kitchen in the downtown area to try croissants made with butter from Fossey’s plant and then to the Whole Foods Market in Green Hills to try some of the cheeses also produced at the plant. Fossey says he was very proud to see his products and to connect with American customers.
This is Fossey’s first time traveling to Hopkinsville with the delegation and he says he has enjoyed learning more about Fort Campbell. When his father was a child, Fossey says he found a knife belonging to a soldier from Fort Campbell and now it has become a family treasure and a reminder of the U.S. military’s contribution to freeing France during WWII.
Patrick Fissot is a history teacher and one of the curators of the Normandy Victory Museum and he’s no stranger to Hopkinsville. Fissot was a member of the first Carentan delegation to visit Hopkinsville and Fort Campbell in 2019.
Despite this not being his first rodeo, Fissot says he has enjoyed exploring a different part of Hopkinsville and the region and meeting new people. During his visit, Fissot says he is working on finding ways to continue the relationship between high schools in Carentan and the Hopkinsville area.
Amy Rogers and Ginnie Pruitt from Visit Hopkinsville and Shannon Lane from the Christian County Military Affairs Committee guided the delegation around Nashville. Rogers says the delegates have been embraced by the community, and with each visit, the relationship between the two cities grows stronger.
Lane encourages those who may plan to travel to Europe to visit Carentan to see the love and appreciation of a community that was freed due to the work of the 101st.
Before they depart for home on Sunday, the delegation will visit Fort Campbell as well as local industries and schools.
