Roseyland

So I went on another little European trip. Which is weird, because I feel like I just finished blogging about Italy. Probably because I pretty much did just finish blogging about Italy. Anyways, this time I visited Paris and Munich. The original plan was to spend a week in Munich with side trips around Bavaria, but well, I have this friend. Let’s call her Renee, although that’s not her real first name. Renee has a half-brother who is French. I know what you are thinking, doesn’t that mean Renee is half-french? No. Renee and her half-brother share an American father, so I guess Renee’s half-brother is technically half-american. Don’t worry, this confused me for a long time too. Renee’s half-brother, let’s call him Eric, has a daughter who was getting married. If you have been paying attention, that means Renee’s French half-niece was getting married, in France.

Back in January, Renee was all like, “You should come to the French wedding with me”, and I was all like, “No”. Because seriously, I don’t enjoy being people’s wedding date in the US, let alone traveling half way around the world. But then my brain started to think, like it has a habit of doing, and it was all like “You know you’re a sucker for new experiences, and we’re planning on going to Europe anyways”. To top it all off, I figured out that this would be a perfect excuse to ride a high speed TGV train from Paris to Munich, and I heart me some high speed rail. So the point is, I turned my Munich/Bavaria trip into a Paris-Munich/Bavaria trip.

In the past, I’ve blogged these trips as day-by-day diaries. For example, my 2009 London/Paris trip, and my 2010 Italy trip. The day-by-day thing gets very arduous though, so this time I’m just blogging about significant parts of the trip. This post is about the French wedding.

We flew to France Thursday night, (Air France, Premium Economy, very nice, I’ll blog about that later), and we arrived in Paris on Friday morning. Friday we checked into the hotel, did some basic sightseeing, and tried to adjust to the new timezone 7 hours in the future. Then on Saturday was the wedding. The first thing I learned about French weddings is that they have two ceremonies. The first ceremony is a civil ceremony held at the town hall or la mairie. Apparently, every Saturday French town halls are like marriage assembly lines. The ceremony takes about 15 minutes, and they do one after another for a good part of the day. We showed up at about 10:30 in the morning, and a couple from a marriage that had just finished was having their pictures taken on the steps in front of the town hall. Not long after that, the bride for the wedding we were attending showed up in this cool old timey car, as you can see in the picture below. I’m not sure what significance the car had or what type of car it even was, but I liked it.

Now would be a good time to talk about the kiss kiss. Do you see the young woman in the blue and black dress walking up to the car in the picture above? That’s Valentine. I lost my kiss kiss virginity to her in that very square. I was hoping to avoid the kiss kiss. As you might know, the French do this thing where they kiss each other on each cheek when they greet each other. Now, I’m not a big hugger, I like people, but I also like my personal space. If I can avoid it, I try not to hug people I don’t know, or people I do know. Kissing though, that’s waaaay more than a little hug. We are talking lips here. I knew I was in France though, and as they say, when in France do as the Romans do… or something like that. Still, I figured that I was obviously an American, and they’d probably let me pass with a handshake. Ehhh… no such luck.

I was introduced to Valentine, and she immediately opened her arms for what I thought would be a hug, and I tried to get away with just a hug, but somehow she made it clear that I was supposed to be doing something else. I was like, “I don’t know what to do.” and she was like “Just kiss kiss”, so I did it, and I lived.

Actually, the kiss kiss isn’t that bad. It’s kind of better than hugging. For one, there is less full body contact, and it’s over quicker. For some reason, I seem to attract people who want multi-second hugs (Excuuuse me, but we did not raise pigs together!). Fortunately, the kiss kiss takes less that a second. Also, there isn’t much kissing involved, it’s more like touch cheeks and make a kissing sound. Then again, I might have been doing it wrong. It also doesn’t hurt that Valentine is pretty cute, so you know, now I can say I kissed a cute French girl. Of course, by the time the trip was over, I had to kiss kiss a few French boys too, but let’s not dwell on that.

Okay, back to the wedding. Here are the bride and groom standing by the car in front of the town hall. The wedding guest are mingling about, waiting until it is time to go inside for the ceremony.

Here are the bride and groom in a waiting room type area of the town hall. When one wedding finishes, the group in the waiting room moves into the ceremony room, and the next wedding group moves into the waiting room. It’s almost German like efficiency, but French.

And here is the ceremony inside the town hall. I love that man’s sash. I guess he is the mayor, but we were in Paris, and I’m pretty sure he wasn’t the mayor of Paris. Does each arrondissement have it’s own mayor? There was a lot of talking in French, and then everybody clapped, so I clapped too.

After the civil ceremony, we went back out to the square in front of the town hall, and a lot of pictures were taken.

After the civil ceremony, there were few hours to kill until the religious ceremony in the afternoon. I think the bride and groom had pictures taken during this time, but I’m not sure. We walked around a bit and got coffee, or white coffee, or cafe creme, whatever, it was good. I took this picture while we were walking around. Note the Eiffel tower in the background.

I also changed into a suit before the next ceremony. Here is a picture of me and my shoes watching some French TV.

The religious ceremony was held in La Chapelle Saint-Louis de l’ Ecole Militaire. Basically St. Louis chapel in the military school. I guess it’s kind of a big deal to have your wedding in the Ecole Militaire. I think the reason the bride and groom could have their wedding here was that the groom’s father is in the national police force, or something like that. This is a picture of the back of the chapel, waiting for the wedding party to enter.

Here is the front of the chapel during the ceremony. It was a catholic ceremony, and it was the long version of the catholic ceremony with communion and everything. I was a little nervous when they did communion, because in American catholic weddings, you aren’t supposed to take communion if you aren’t catholic. I didn’t know what the French catholic rule was though. I was worried that everyone would go up, and so I would too, but then they would figure out that I wasn’t catholic, and you know, then all hell would break lose. Lot’s of people didn’t take communion though, so I didn’t either. Disaster averted.

Another view of the chapel after the ceremony as the wedding party is about to exit.

The bride and groom and their five children exiting the chapel after the ceremony. Kidding.. Kidding… those aren’t their kids, as far as I know.

I thought this view of the Eiffel tower from inside the Ecole Militaire was kind of cool. This is probably what it looks like to be in a French prison.

After the second ceremony, there was a lot of picture taking and mingling in the courtyard behind the Ecole Militaire.

Another picture after the religious ceremony, hey look! the car is back!

After the ceremony, there was cocktail reception for a few hours in another area of the Ecole Militaire. It’s hard to believe we were still in the middle of Paris, because it looked like some type of chateau off in the French countryside. At the cocktail reception, there were a few political discussions that I found interesting. First, the day before the wedding, New York had just legalized gay marriage. I had not heard about this, because you know, I was in France, but the French seemed very interested in it all. I’m kind of surprised that they were so interested, being that it’s just one state and all.

There was also some discussion of the IMF president scandal. If you don’t know, the IMF president was a French man who was accused of sexually assaulting a maid in a New York hotel room. Before the incident, he was considered a likely candidate to be the next French president. The French seemed to consider this scandal a big embarrassment, and a few people at the reception stated that they previously had planned to vote for the former IMF president.

Also, at some point during the reception, I heard that there were basically four political parties in France. Something like far left, moderate left, moderate right, and far right. Most people at the reception seemed to consider themselves moderate left.

I’m not sure why I just told you all this, but it was interesting to me. Really, I was surprised at how easily the French discussed politics, and how willing they were to state their political beliefs. In America, I feel like we generally avoid discussing politics, especially around people we have just met. Unless it’s on the internet of course, then we just say whatever crazy thing we want

Eventually, at 8:00 or 9:00 in the evening, dinner started. I was a little surprised that dinner started so late, because you know, surly this thing would be wrapped up by midnight. I mean, it started at 11:00 in the morning after all. This is the table I sat at, they were nice enough to sit us with a bunch of english speakers. Which is good, because the only things I can say in french are: “The cat is on the table”, “I want coffee with milk”, “Where is the restuarant”, “Good Day”, “Good Evening”, “Good Night”, “Good Bye”, “Please”, “Thank You”,… well okay, maybe I can say a lot in French, but I’m not good at follow up questions.

First course, raw scallops wrapped in a cucumber topped with a tomato slice and lime. That’s olive oil on the plate, it was tasty.

I’d say there was a good 45 minutes to an hour between courses. During this time there were speeches and some singing thing. Here is my second course. It was lamb on a foie gras sauce topped with a ginger bread breading. On the side were a form of cheesy potatoes. The cheesy potatoes were fantabulous. The lamb was good too, but I’m not so sure about the combination of gingerbread and lamb.

After the second course, they did one of those videos with childhood pictures of the bride and groom. I liked this, because we do this in America too, so it was cool to see the same tradition taking place in France. It’s like we are all the same even though we’re different… Woooah…. Sorry, try to forget I said that.

Third course, salad and cheese. Who doesn’t love cheese? The lettuce was decent too.

After the third course it was about 12:30 in the morning. At some point an American, who was engaged to the groom’s brother (I think), came over to talk to us. She casually mentioned that French weddings go until about 4:00 in the morning. Cue mild panic on my part. 4:00 A.M.? Seriously? And we aren’t talking the dance goes until 4:00, there were still lots of events left. As of 12:30, the first dance, father daughter dance, and wedding cake had yet to happen. I’m usually a trooper, and a pretty serious night owl, but I still hadn’t completely adjusted to the new time zone, and um, I might have scheduled a tour of Versailles for 9:30 the next morning. Oops. So, we ended up leaving a little after 12:30. Fortunately, our hotel was pretty close by. I still feel bad about leaving early, but there is no way I was going to make it until 4:00am. Renee, she’s the reason we are at a wedding in France, remember? Anyways, Renee had intended to go back after a quick nap, but uh, she didn’t quite make it.

Now we jump forward in time a bit. We did make it to Versailles the next day, and I even got to go up in the Eiffel tower. I’ll blog about that in another post though. Anyways, it’s the day after the wedding. While I went up in the Eiffel tower, Renee met her French family for drinks and cheese or something. After the Eiffel tower, I met up with Renee and her family for dinner at the Restaurant Georges on top of Pompidou Center, which is a museum of modern art. On the way to Pompidou Center, I had to take a Taxi, in Paris, by myself, and it involved being driven through those tunnels along the Seine river where Princess Diana died in a car crash. Motorcycles were zooming by the taxi and everything. I’m lucky to be alive.

I arrived at the Restaurant Georges right before sunset, and all I can say is, like oh my God, woah. The restaurant has a very modern motif with wall to wall floor to ceiling windows. It’s on the 6th floor, so you have a view of pretty much everything in Paris. It was so surreal, that if a pink elephant and his unicorn friend had flown in the room, I would have offered them a glass of wine. If you are ever Paris, you should eat here. Make a reservation for one hour before sunset.

Here is a view from Restaurant Georges after dark. In the background, you can see the Eiffel tower with it’s twinkling lights. It’s more impressive in person.

I feel kind of silly saying this, but dinner that night was actually one of the most interesting and somewhat amazing nights of my life, and I totally wasn’t expecting that. I guess I wasn’t sure what to expect. When Renee said that she had a half-brother in France, my mind kind of interpreted that as something like a second cousin once removed on a crazy uncle’s side. I figured we would meet her French relatives, but I didn’t expect to spend any significant time with them. I was wrong though, we had dinner for about 3 hours that night with Renee’s half-brother, his wife, their two daughters, new son-in-law, and other daughter’s boyfriend. Oh yeah, Renee’s American brother and sister-in-law were also there, but really, who cares about them? Kidding… kidding… They were all ridiculously friendly people, and they spoke fairly good English. Part of me wanted to feel like I shouldn’t be there, because, I mean, it wasn’t my family. I was kind of an intruder in the whole thing, but they treated me like some long lost brother they had always know, if that makes any sense.

So I’m putting myself in your position now, and I’m reading this, and I’m wondering what the big deal is. I had dinner in France with some French people, and they were nice to me, so what? Partly it’s that I love new experiences. Traveling to Paris leads to all sorts of new experiences, however, in a place like Paris, I always sort of feel like I’m on the outside looking in. I can be right in the middle of this exciting new world, but it still feels like there are all these invisible barriers between me and said world. I didn’t feel those barriers at dinner that night though. It’s like I got to truly see a little bit of French life beyond all of the touristy distractions, and also like there was a now link between my world and their world, and well, that was cool. Really cool.

There was more kiss kissing at the end of the evening, but we’re not going to dwell on that, remember? Anywho… this concludes my French wedding experience. Here is a page with more information about French weddings, which I really should have read before I left. You can also read all of my Paris-Munich trip posts here (if I ever get around to posting more), see more pictures here, and see a few videos here.