A VILLAGE is celebrating 11 years of friendship with its European neighbours.

Ashton Keynes is currently playing host to a group of 35 schoolchildren from its French twin village of Grandchamp Des Fontaines near Nantes.

They spent yesterday afternoon in Ashton Keynes Primary School and are heading to London for the day tomorrow.

The children are aged between nine and 11, which is younger than most who take part in exchanges, and are staying in pairs with families in the village.

National Health Service employee Jessica Burston, 37, from Ashton Keynes, is involved with the trip's organising committee and says the children are having a great time.

She said: "Our children think it is the best thing ever. They don't speak much French but the other pupils' English is superb.

"They manage to communicate well and our children are having a great time showing them all of the food and where everything in the village is.

"The twinning brings the community together. Last year 200 families went over to France to celebrate 10 years of twinning and had a memorable time."