A group of people working in the cultural and heritage sector in France have been visiting Cornwall.

The party from Finistere in Brittany spent two days in the county.

The group went to Helston Museum and the National Maritime Museum in Falmouth on the first day and then spent the following day at the National Trust’s Lanhydrock House.

The visit was part of a wider partnership between Cornwall and Finistere, which has been running for more than 10 years and has seen the two areas working together to share knowledge and experience whilst also working on projects together. The partnership has generated more than £5m in European funding over the last decade.

One of the key areas the French delegates were looking at was the use of volunteers in Cornwall, something which was different to how they work in Brittany.

Marie Bouguer is the Finistere-Cornwall co-operation officer based in Cornwall and hosted this week’s event.

She said: “It has been interesting for them to see how museums and cultural assets are managed and run. At Helston Museum it was interesting to speak to and learn about how much volunteers are involved there.

“Volunteers are much different here in that they are really involved in the running of the museums and attractions.”

She added: “Here in England you have a lot more people who retire and then want to go on and volunteer and they really get involved. In France we have people who want to get involved but they don’t really have the chance because the organisation and running of our museums is very different.”

Later this year a team from Cornwall, including some from the National Trust, will be going on a visit to Finistere to see how they work and to see what they can learn from them.

Laurence Harvey, volunteer officer at Lanhydrock, said that it had been interesting to meet with the French delegates.

He said: “It is always interesting for us to meet people from external heritage organisations, particularly from other countries.

“It is also a really good opportunity for us to take time and look at ourselves and how we do things. It has been really good for me to get that different perspective.”

The Cornwall Finistere Co-operation has also worked on a number of different sectors in the two areas including forging links between schools, colleges and businesses.

Marie, whose position is funded by Finistere, said: “Cornwall and Brittany are very similar in both their geographic location and a high level of tourism.

“In the same way that Cornwall is very far away from everything else in the country so is Finistere. In fact we (in Finistere) are closer to Cornwall than we are to the south of France.

“It has been a successful link between the two areas and we look forward to continuing that in the future.”