About our twin

Villedômer – a jewel in the heart of the lower Loire valley

Scultures
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Telephone box – came all the way form Stapleford!
 
The late David Pepperell,  arranged for one of the village phone boxes, when they became redundant, to be transported to Villedômer as a gift. At first it was installed near to the Mairie. Today It stands in Le Square de Stapleford.
 
 
 
Villedômer is located south west of Paris, near Tours (in Loches, Indre et Loire), and has been twinned with Stapleford since 1979.

Google maps link here.

The driving time from Stapleford is about 8 hours (via Eurotunnel) and the distance is about 460 miles. Flights from Stansted to Tours (the nearest airport to Villedômer) and Poitiers are available with Ryanair.

The two municipalities (Villedômer and Stapleford) delegate to their respective committees the task of developing their friendships by organizing annual meetings.

The village has a population of about 1,400 compared to Stapleford’s 1,900.

There are similarities between the two communities.  Largely agricultural villages in the past but now with associations to university towns, Cambridge and Tours.  And they are both close to important research centres:   INRAE, l’Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (the National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and the Environment) in Nouzilly; and Babraham Institute which now concentrates on life sciences research for lifelong health.  Finally, the nearby towns of Sawston and Château-Renault, both used to have large tanning factories for the production of leather.

Former tannery at Château-Renault

Being close to the northern Loire valley, the famous châteaux there are a main feature of the area. But there are others: