When two people from Cornwall visited France last autumn, they created something they believe to be unique.

La Troupe de Danseurs Morris' de Couptrain is an Anglo-French morris side formed for a one-off performance at a beer festival.

But the side lives on and is heading for the Cornwall Festival of Dance in June.

Paul White and Sally Hamlyn, of Gunnislake, are both dancers with Cat's Eye Border Morris in Cornwall.

"We were in France for a few weeks last autumn and one of the village bars was promoting a beer festival so I asked if they would like morris dancers to perform. The answer was a resounding yes' and within a week we had more than 16 recruits," said Paul.

There was only one problem - the festival was only four weeks away and only one of the recruits had any morris experience.

"Even he had to start from scratch because he was used to the Cotswold tradition and we were teaching border morris," said Paul.

The landlord offered the room above the bar for practice. Kit was created from old fancy dress costumes, a royal blue sash, red or green shirts and decorated hats.

Morris bells were tracked down and sticks were cut from local hazel bushes.

Sally wrote a new dance and a new tune named after the village - Couptrain on the Loire region and Normandy border.

"It is a dance for eight, which meant we could perform it twice with a different set of dancers each time," she said.

A second dance involved every member.

Two local musicians played alongside Sally, creating an impressive band.

"We had four practices in the pub and two full dress rehearsals in the village hall and within four weeks we had a credible dance side," said Paul.

Since coming back to Cornwall the side has continued practising to music recorded by Sally and they are fund raising for the visit to Cornwall.

"We hope to go back briefly before the festival and add another couple of dances to their repertoire. They are really excited about performing at the festival," said Sally.

Paul is currently searching for other morris sides in France.

"So far no luck. I have found one on the web but the emails bounce back so it may be defunct. If there are any, it would be good to get them together for a mini-festival. But as far as I know, at this stage, Couptrain Morris is unique," he said.