Denison Sister Cities

🚨🚨 REMINDER 🚨🚨

The 2026 Exchange Program applications are due this Friday, December 5th at 5PM!

A few reminders:
- Applications are open for both students and chaperones.
- Applications can be found online or you can pick up a copy at the Discover Denison Visitor Center (321 W Main Street) and all applications must be returned to the Visitor Center.
- Denison High School freshmen, sophomores, and juniors are eligible to apply.
- Students will spend 2 weeks living with a host family in Cognac, France and then host their French partner in Texas for 2 weeks in late July/early August 2025.
- The cost of the program is $1,000 and covers all major expenses, travel, and hosting for students. The remaining portion is covered by the Munson Foundation.

Applications and more information can be found at:

Sister Cities, Inc. | Denison, TX Denison Sister Cities, Inc. celebrates the historic bond between Denison, Texas, and Cognac, France, rooted in the collaboration between horticulturist T.V. Munson and Cognac native Pierre Viala during the phylloxera epidemic of the mid-1800s. Since 1992, Denison Sister Cities has been part of a nat...

The 2026 Exchange Program applications are open to Denison High School Students and Chaperones!

A few reminders:
- Applications are open for both students and chaperones and are due December 5th at 5PM.
- Applications can be found online or you can pick up a copy at the Discover Denison Visitor Center (321 W Main Street) and all applications must be returned to the Visitor Center.
- Denison High School freshmen, sophomores, and juniors are eligible to apply.
- Students will spend 2 weeks living with a host family in Cognac, France and then host their French partner in Texas for 2 weeks in late July/early August 2025.
- The cost of the program is $1,000 and covers all major expenses, travel, and hosting for students. The remaining portion is covered by the Munson Foundation.

Applications and more information can be found at https://www.denisontx.gov/652/Sister-Cities-Inc

Today the Olympic Torch came through Cognac on it's way to the 2024 Paris Olympics!

Olympic Torch Relay: which cities are involved?
From 8 May to 26 July 2024, the Olympic flame will cross the whole of mainland France and a large part of the French overseas territories. In all, more than 400 towns, including 65 stopover towns, will be hosting this event.

The stopover towns will host the torch at the end of the relay day, usually between 5pm and 8 pm. In these towns, there are three main events:
1. The live parade. A number of cultural and/or sporting events are planned to highlight the relay.
2. Live celebrations. These take place alongside the live parade, in a celebration area (e.g. local Olympic village, cultural event, theatre, etc.).
3. The lighting of the cauldron, when the last torchbearer sets fire to the cauldron in the stopover city.
Between two stopover towns, the torch continues its journey
Each day, the Olympic Torch Relay passes through 4 cities (main convoy) and 3 iconic sites (secondary convoy):
• The main convoy takes the form of a running relay in each city in the convoy over a stretch of 4 to 5 km, with a change of torchbearer every 200 metres. The last town crossed (stopover town) hosts the cauldron lighting ceremony.
• The secondary convoy is adapted to suit the location: it can take the form of a run of less than a kilometre or a presentation of the torch in a symbolic place, or with an unusual mode of travel.
When the torch is visible and the convoys are in relay mode, traffic lanes are closed off at least 30 minutes before the arrival of the convoy and until the last vehicle has passed. Depending on the terms of the closure, motorised travel will be restricted or even prohibited on the route concerned. Diversions will be in operation.
When a stopover town hosts the torch, security zones and traffic zones will be activated before and during the highlights of the event. These involve checks at the entrance to the celebration sites and traffic restrictions and arrangements: parking bans, reserved lanes, etc.
When the torch passes from a town to an iconic site, the convoy has right of way. It is flanked by vehicles in a safety bubble.
17 people carried the torch in Cognac this morning.

This weekend our Sister Cities students got together to help clean up a community member's yard in the first annual Big Event!🌿

City of Denison, Texas Government