As you drive along the A606 in the East Midlands of England, you may notice a rather unusual road sign. It's one of two, one either side of the road, as you approach the village of Whitwell in the tiny county of Rutland. The one on the right announces 'Whitwell - Please drive carefully through the village', but the one on the left somewhat enigmatically reads 'Whitwell - Twinned with Paris'.

Twinned with Where?

It's a proper, official-looking county-council-installed sign, all right. It's been there since 1980 and the Paris it refers to is indeed the capital of the glorious République Française. So how could a fairly nondescript English village have pulled off such a coup?

There's nothing unusual about twinning, of course. There are hundreds of cities, towns and villages in the UK, and thousands worldwide, which have fostered links with others abroad. Councillors will tell you it's an opportunity to promote goodwill and understanding between the townsfolk, form an association of friendship, and share both ideas and hospitality through fact-finding visits. Council tax-payers will tell you it's a shocking waste of public money, as the representatives they elected to formulate local government policy take all-expenses-paid foreign holidays on club-class tickets to indulge in lavish junkets. The truth is probably somewhere in between the two, but you don't necessarily need a twin town for an excuse to live the high life – remember Doncaster in 1997?

With few exceptions, twin towns are of a similar size and exhibit some sort of demographic, cultural or historical similarities. London is twinned with New York City, Torquay with the once rat-infested Hamelin, and Aberdeen with, naturally, Bulawayo. Paris and Whitwell, however, are not so closely matched, let it be said. Paris, 'the City of Light', is one of the top tourist destinations in the world. It boasts many beautiful and historic landmarks, romantic vistas, world-class museums, some of the finest hotels, best cuisine and most fashionable boutiques in the world, and unrivalled nightlife. It is also a vast metropolis, home to around 11 million people. Whitwell has a pub, a hotel and 42 residents¹.

Making Friends

It all happened in the pub, you see. You know how it is: people sit around and have a few drinks and someone cracks this 'wouldn't it be funny if...' joke. In thousands of other pubs across the land that would be the end of it, but the chairman of the parish council and landlord of the Noel Arms, Sam Healey, thought it was worth a try. Declaring himself head of the newly formed Twinning Committee, he wrote to his equivalent number in Paris, one Jacques Chirac, suggesting the tie-up. Chirac, to his credit, replied diplomatically, but wasn't too keen. He thought he might only be able to legally pair up with foreign capitals, as Paris had done with Rome, and he'd never heard of Whitwell.

Well, that sounded fairly positive to the Noel Arms regulars. They drafted another letter, asking whether they could know for sure by a certain date, about five weeks hence, as they were planning a celebration. If they didn't hear anything, they would assume he approved. The local schoolmaster translated it, and it was sent back to Chirac. Then came the important bit: the deadline passed without a reply. They were twinned!

They don't remember a lot about the day of the ceremony. English beer and French wine flowed. English Morris men performed alongside a troupe of can-can dancers specially shipped in from Melton Mowbray. A fine time was had by all; Healey woke up the next day in the coal shed.

Non-identical Twins

There isn't a law set in stone that capital cities can only link with other ones, and a handful of non-capital cities in the UK have pulled off the feat of having a capital twin. Birmingham proudly displays Prague on its road signs, and Liverpool is closely associated with Dublin. Bristol ties up with Tblisi and Hull with Freetown, Sierra Leone. Edinburgh has links to Kiev, and Glasgow to Havana. Some even have two: Nottingham boasts both Harare and Ljubljana; Coventry has both Belgrade and Kingston, Jamaica.

It's not only cities. The Yorkshire spa town of Harrogate, home of Bettys Tea Rooms, is twinned with Wellington, New Zealand. Dartford in Kent, best known for a bridge, a tunnel and a large shopping centre, is linked to Tallinn; while Slough, still awaiting Betjeman's friendly bombs, can boast a friendship with Riga.

Whitwell trumps the lot of them, though. Yes, it was unilaterally declared and entirely unofficial, but it's raised the profile of a small community and ensured there's one pub in Britain where bemused travellers will drop in every other week and ask: 'Are you really twinned with Paris?'