I wrote yesterday about the Caerphilly-Lannion Twinning Association and Jean-Jacques Monnier’s whistlestop tour of South Wales history. Today we were in a large tourist coach and I was on the microphone describing the route to Big Pit Mining Museum (in French!). The Caerphilly committee were aware that I had passed my exam to be a Green Badge Guide. They then primed Jean-Marc, the coach driver from Lannion, who suggested I practice my commentary on our way to the Welsh Parliament building. Normally, I would not be allowed to advertise that I can lead a tour in French without passing an exam but, as this was among friends, I took it as an opportunity to practice my French as well as my guiding skills.

Before doing it on the Green Badge course, I had been afraid that coach commentary would be the most difficult skill to learn, as this was new to me. In reality, it turned out to be much simpler than leading a walking tour or a driver guided one as there is much less detail needed. The road rolls by and one or two facts on each landmark is all there is time for, whereas when one spends any time at a venue, a much more comprehensive description is required. In a coach, the most important thing to know is the route. On this occasion, much of the route was one of our practice runs on the course so I had much of the necessary information at my fingertips. The other Welshmen on the coach were able to fill some of the gaps from their local knowledge and by judicious use of Google, the responses being passed on to me for transliteration into French. Translation of Welsh place names into French filled other parts of the route.

Visitors underground at Big Pit are given a guided tour in “Wenglish” by an ex-miner. After over 30 years of Twinning, many of the Bretons had sufficient English to understand what was being said, but over half could not follow the local dialect. With consent from, our guide, I offered translation at every stop. Normally this would be done by a native speaker of the “target language”, but on this occasion my knowledge of Big Pit and of Wenglish made me the ideal translator for the occasion, with any gaps in my French filled in by one of the Bretons.

The return to Caerphilly was down the Sirhowy Valley with a stop at the Guardian monument to the 45 men killed in the last great mining disaster in Wales that took place in the 6 Bells mine near Abertillery in 1960. The impressive, 12.6 metre high statue of a collier on a 7.4 metre sandstone plinth was created by the Welsh sculptor, Sebastien Boyesen, and unveiled in June 2010, exactly 50 years after the firedamp explosion that took their lives. I had visited the site as part of developing my guiding portfolio and was able to lead the party along the path to the monument in addition to the coach commentary on the route. The feedback received was that the commentary on the coach, although delivered in a strong Welsh accent, was a great improvement over the usual bus ride where the countryside passes unexplained and I was asked for a repeat performance for the following day’s trip the the Senedd (Welsh Parliament) in Cardiff Bay.

Lannioneses at the Guardian of the Valleys

Once again, I had completed most of the route as part of my Green Badge course. I needed to improvise on Caerphilly Castle, Aber and Penrhos railway junctions, the GE (ex-British Airways) engine works and the Nantgarw Pottery, but The Barry Line viaduct, Castell Coch, the 5-a-side football pitches, the view of Llandaff Cathedral from Coryton flyover, Maindy Stadium, Nazareth House, the Welsh College of Music & Drama and Bute Park all flew by until we reached Cardiff Castle. I had expected to turn left there along Boulevard de Nantes to approach Cardiff Bay via Atlantic Wharf, but Jean-Marc knew a way through Riverside where I had to improvise again until we pulled up at the coach stop near the Millennium Centre. All delivered in my best French.

We had over half an hour to spare before meeting Peredur Owen-Griffiths, Assembly Member for South East Wales, so I led our French visitors on a mini walking tour through the Millenium Centre, past Ivor Novello’s statue to the Welsh Parliament, pointing out various features as we went, all in gradually improving French. Following a very close devolution vote in 1997, the National Assembly for Wales was created in 1998 and opened on 1st July 1999, initially in the Ty Hywel building next door. It moved to its current site in 2006 and after gaining increasing legislative powers over the next decade was re-baptised as “Senedd Cymru” or the “Welsh Parliament” in 2020. Peredur led our French guests through this history along with the evolution of voting structures with the aid of an in-house translator, Steffan, although I had the impression that some of the political points made were lost on our Breton friends, whose Breton Parliament in Rennes has far less autonomy.

Then it was lunchtime. I took Jean-Jacques for a short guided visit of the Bay area before eating in the Norwegian Church. The others had all wandered off to do their own thing, but I think Jean-Jacques was again pleased to have someone talk about Welsh history. He seemed to enjoy the anecdote on the crowds waiting to send Robert Falcon Scott off on his ill-fated expedition to Antarctica in 1910. At the time Cardiff was the busiest port in the world and the biggest contributor to Scott’s Terra Nova expedition, which is why it set sail from Cardiff Bay (without its captain who was still fundraising elsewhere). He also smiled at the description of the excise building being moved intact on the back of a lorry to form the front of the current Water Guard pub, but was not sufficiently amused to want to eat there. We were able to explore the Norwegian Church, one of Cardiff Bays most emblematic landmarks instead and their Welsh “cawl” was hot and filling.

The curse of the tour guide, however, is the pre-arranged timetable that cuts across any extensive commentary. In this case we were booked on the 2.30 boat trip up the Ely River to Cardiff Castle, from where the French were to be let loose for an hour’s holiday shopping in central Cardiff before catching the bus back to Caerphilly at 4pm. Eight of them opted to stay with me for a walking tour of the Cardiff arcades and market area, again in French. This also took in the Animal Wall and entrance to Cardiff Castle, St John’s Church, Aneurin Bevan’s statue, the Italianate building on Queen Street and the front of the the old Civic Centre at Cathays Park. By the time we had reached city Hall it was five to four, so we turned left through the underpass to join the bus at the North Road coach stop with 2 minutes to spare.

By now, I was exhausted. French is my third language and over 6 hours of commentary had drained me. Nonetheless, I added the odd remark over the microphone on the way back, expanding on what had been said that morning. Both the Welsh and the French people present on the trip thanked my for my efforts. But perhaps the strangest part of the day was a trilingual conversation with Steffan in the Pierhead building, held in English, Welsh and French, which we both spoke, immediately following the Assembly visit. We agreed that Welsh to English and English to French is easy, but Welsh to French requires a lot more concentration. Perhaps the lesson from these 2 days is that, as soon as South Wales heritage Tours is up and running, I should take the exam to guide in French for pay.