French ambassador Hélène Duchêne reaffirms strong alliance in visit to Cambridge

Hélène Duchêne, the ambassador of France to the United Kingdom, spent a day in Cambridge, visiting places including AstraZeneca, Arm and the University of Cambridge.

Part of the day last Wednesday (5 March) was also spent at the Cambridge branch of the Alliance Française, which is twinned with the Norwich branch under Alliance Française East Anglia, and located on Red Cross Lane, next to Addenbrooke’s Hospital.

Accompanied by Natalia Foresti and Anissia Morel, who also work at the embassy, the ambassador was given a tour of the premises in the afternoon.

The Alliance Française is a place where French language and culture are enthusiastically celebrated and promoted.

A friendly and welcoming cultural hub, the Alliance offers numerous cultural activities and even shows French films – for free – in its on-site cinema.

Afterwards, Mme Duchêne sat down with the Cambridge Independent in the centre’s library.

“It’s not my first trip to Cambridge, I’ve been ambassador to the UK for a bit more than two years,” she explained.

“So of course I came to Cambridge, not just for professional reasons, but for private reasons because it’s really beautiful.

“This time, I wanted to understand the plan of the government to develop this region, this corridor, and to see what this meant.

“We went to AstraZeneca, we went to Cambridge University Hospitals, discussing how to use AI in diagnostics, and now we are in the Alliance Française, and after we will go to Arm and Churchill College.”

The ambassador noted that the UK is one of France’s biggest partners when it comes to exchanging ideas and information about science and research.

“Our Franco-British scientific partnership has always been special for both our countries; we remain key partners in science,” she said, “and the fact that the UK came back into the Horizon programme improved the situation because now we are working together, as UK and France, on big programmes from Horizon Europe.

“Health, digital industry, climate, astrophysics and infrastructure – we are working together in this European framework, but we have also some bilateral tools that we’ve been putting in place, and we have a fellowship with Churchill College.”

The Alliance Française in Cambridge – there are also branches in cities such as Bristol, Exeter, Leeds, York, Manchester and Oxford – was previously located in the city centre, but has been at its current site for the past five years.

This visit marked the first time that Mme Duchêne had visited this particular site.

“The Alliance has a lot of partnerships with the Cambridge ecosystem,” she said, “and you know that in Cambridge, you have the department teaching French, teaching French studies, and French literature, of course.”

Teachers from one of the University of Cambridge colleges come to give one lecture a month, and the next one is on Jacques Lacan and psychoanalysis.

Anissia Morel, cultural counsellor at the French Embassy, and director of the Institut français de Londres – the largest French learning centre in the country – said: “Last year, the Alliance Française hosted the exhibition that started at the French Institute, on the Entente Cordiale. They had one lecture and a few guided tours of the exhibition.”

The Entente Cordiale was a series of agreements signed in 1904 between the UK and France.

“It’s a very fruitful co-operation we have with them, and we at the French Institute try every year, when we think of our cultural programming, also think about what could the Alliance want.

“And we meet twice a year – once in London, once in another Alliance,” she added.

Mme Duchêne, who says she is “very interested” to see what is happening in Cambridge, added that the Alliance has an outreach initiative, which gives children at less wealthy state schools in the region the chance to learn French.

“We contact the school and the school gives the name of pupils that might be interested,” she said, “and they tell me, ‘We don’t want the children with the best level, but with the best motivation’.

“So they have an hour online learning French, it’s free, and they want to extend that.”

For more on the Cambridge branch of the Alliance Française, visit alliance-cam.co.uk. For more on the French Institute in London, go to institut-francais.org.uk.