The Wedding

You may recall we came on this trip to attend a wedding.  Tom's cousin has lived in France for many years and his daughter, Pauline is marrying childhood sweetheart Simon.  The wedding was to be the typical French ceremonies of civil wedding at the town hall, followed by a mass at the village church and finally the reception.  All this I was prepared for - the rest I was not.  And I could probably fill a dozen blogs on the events of the day, but for I will give you the ceremony.

Travelling from so far for the event we had to carefully plan what to wear.  At first I thought a wedding in France would be very chic and I was planning a full on outfit - think Spring racing carnival.  Then some research indicated that French weddings can be less formal, but that research was mostly from American blogs, and as I had no idea what American weddings were like, knowing that French weddings were less formal than their weddings was not much of a yardstick for measuring.  There was much debate if the men needed suits and ties.  Anyway, this is just a rather long way of getting to the point that for the first part of the day all I did was gawk at what everyone else was wearing and I am pleased to say that we fitted in nicely.  While some of the locals were less formal, many where very elegantly dressed.  But I was a bit disappointed in the French shoes, the best shoes were on the Australians.  

A Frenchman only needs one good leg to drive a tractor

The arrival of the groom and his friends was unconventional, as you can see.  There was also a car decked out in an Australian and a Breton flag, adorned with blow up kangaroos on the back. 

Pauline & Simon at the Mairie for the civilceremony 

The civil ceremony was held in a smallish room, certianly not enough to accommodate the 240 guests, so many spilled our into the foyer.  The Mairie himself could not have been more arcetypal - so Gallic and adorned with the tricolor sash and rosette.  After a quick greeting to the trallevers in English the ceremony was in French, so we have no idea what went on, but I did get the references to fidelitie and amour.

Next we headed off for the religious ceremony.  The church was 17th century and gorgeous, of course.  Even better was the bar over the road where we enjoyed a quick ale before the ceremony.  Gemma and I have discovered a new beer - Desperados. It is flavoured with Tequila and is slightly sweet - just a like a shandy in a bottle ! Excellent, will be looking out for that a home.  But the church bells are ringing, so off to the church. Another French language ceremony.  What struck me were the children, unlike Australia the kids are welcome at weddings.  And no one was concerned at them chatting, crying and playing.  And we all laughed merrily when the little flowergirl, in her big moment, dropped the rings.  The other delightful part of the ceremony that was delightful was the singing, and I do not mean hymns.  The music was provided by an electonic keyboard and she as joined by her sister who was an excellent chanteuse.  And then we had an acoustic guitar and solo singer, yet another song about armour.  And then a solo soprano - just superb.

More bell ringing (I felt like I was in a Mid Sommer Murder) and then the official parts of the day were over.  Next - the reception.  But that is another story all together.

Chappelle De Drenec

Maurice

The wedding party