A SELL-out audience of 116 people including the Mayor of Farnham, Mike Hodge, crowded into Rowledge Village Hall and had a memorable ‘evening in France’ in aid of The Simon Trust.

Before guests tucked into their French meal, washed down by some tasty French wine, Sally Lawrence, chairman of The Simon Trust said a few words about the charity, which is aiming to raise £500,000 to help build homes for 10 young adults with severe autism in Alfold.

The stars of the show were the multi-talented Blanchard Family from Toulouse who had came over specially to give their performance. Polonie and Fleur started the evening off playing Beethoven on the cello and viola respectively.

“Frederic Blanchard then took over and meandered up to the stage playing his delightful accordion and we could imagine ourselves on the banks of the River Seine,” said Peter Lawrence.

This was followed by 10 songs, sung by Fred while playing either the keyboard, accordion or guitar. He was accompanied by his son Leopaul on the trombone and his two daughters Polonie and Fleur on cello, viola and drums.

The first song was ‘Matricule 06’ which lamented the fact that mobile phones are taking over peoples lives, followed by ‘Si naguere les grammariens’ and such titles as ‘Les Adoratrices’, ‘Mignonne, allons voir si la ville rose’ and ‘L’huitre et le citron’.

Peter concluded: “The lights went down low and red, for ‘Dracula’ which had us all on the watch for buzzing mosquitoes. The audience loved it all with comments afterwards like ‘how different’, ‘so enjoyable’ and ‘just like the von Trapp family’. The mayor said he ‘enjoyed every minute of their performance’.”

The evening raised just over £1,000 which will go to support The Simon Trust. More details about the Trust can be found at www.thesi

montrust.org.