Kiwis made in Palmerston North return to their city of birth from France

Thomas, Benedicte and Jonathan Lecointre with their mother, Leisha Ashdown, during their whirlwind return to Palmerston North. Photo / Dennis Dickinson

Three Palmerston North-made Kiwis have returned briefly to the city of their birth for a trip down memory lane - and Weet-Bix.

Thomas, Jonathan and Benedicte Lecointre's story begins with a pre-teen girl becoming enthralled with the French language.

Born in Quebec, Canada, Leisha Ashdown moved with her family to Australia the following year. When she was 12, she heard French being spoken fluently, loved it and wanted to do something with the Romance language.

Ashdown says she had a lovely French teacher who encouraged her and pushed her to enter competitions. She studied French at the University of New England in Armidale, NSW, and also trained as a secondary school teacher.

She went on to get a PhD in French Literature from Stendhal University at Grenoble, near the French Alps.

Ashdown met Frenchman Jerome Lecointre at a wedding. Her knees were shaking, her palms sweaty and it was love at first sight. After spending a year apart, they married in France in 1990, and settled in Armidale then Adelaide.

In 1993, they moved to Palmerston North. Ashdown got a job as a lecturer in French at Massey University while her husband worked as a research officer in volcanology at Massey.

Neither had been to New Zealand before. They left Palmerston North in 2009 to go to the region of Auvergne in central France. By then Thomas was 15, Jonathan 12 and Benedicte 9.

Ashdown has taught English at the University of Clermont Auvergne since 2010. She says not being American or British makes her job easier because French students often have preconceptions about those nationalities.

Ashdown and Lecointre live in Riom, which has about 18,000 residents.

Thomas, 27, is a software engineer for tyre manufacturer Michelin.

Jonathan, 24, is studying management at Sorbonne University in Paris as well as jazz at a conservatory. Ashdown remembers Lecointre getting Jonathan his first set of drums from the Rockshop in The Square when he was 9.

Jonathan is also doing a work-study programme working on Pass Culture, or culture pass, an app that gives young people credit to spend on cultural events and goods.

Benedicte, 22, is doing a postgraduate degree in environmental politics at Lyon.

Jonathan says it has been great to come back to Palmerston North. Seeing his friends was more emotional than he expected.

He has missed Kiwi food, especially Weet-Bix and Hellers beef sausages. "We had Weet-Bix on the first day, I've had so much Weet-Bix."

The family also mentioned Milo, Cheerios and crumpets.

Jonathan went to The Feelers concert on his first night back in Palmy with his childhood best friend from Winchester School.

It was a far cry from the Rolling Stones concert Ashdown and a friend attended earlier in July in Lyon.

"A friend and I thought we would see Mick Jagger by ourselves."

There were 50,000 people there.

Benedicte says during their five-night stay they knocked on doors and discovered people they knew still lived there.