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Our
Wedding: May
24, 1997, St. Hilarion, France
Here we are, at the reception in La Bellanderie, our lovely home in Saint Hilarion, southwest
of Paris on the old road to Chartres. The French civil service had done
its duty, and it was time for the
food and a slow glass of champagne.
The preparations had been very hectic and hairy. A couple of weeks before the
wedding we learned that the law in France considers one not to be divorced even
after the divorce judgment has been pronounced. Think about that one for a
minute! With a lot of hasty legal research in the Palais de Justice
in Paris, and a bit of help from the best man, Karim Medjad, we figured out how to get around
these legal impediments. Lucky that we picked a law professor as best
man, wasn't it!
But Ian needed to make several visits to the competent authorities to get
their permission for the wedding to take place, and it took until five p.m. on the day
before the wedding to find the person with sufficient ability to figure out that we were entitled to get married and
sufficient authority to convince the Maire of St. Hilarion to marry us. No
fooling around with the French civil service!
Merci encore, Madame le Substitut!
You can imagine how this last minute uncertainty added a little zest to the
proceedings: friends and family were arriving at local hotels, and we did not know whether to welcome them with
open arms or apologize and send them on their way!
But all is well that ends well, and the assistant of the Maire duly married us in the Mairie of St. Hilarion.
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Here is the bride to be leaving the house for
the ceremony, with an elegant chauffeur in the person of her uncle, Dr.
Alain Berhaut.
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The civil ceremony in the Mairie, or
Village Hall, of Saint Hilarion. Denis, Marie-Hélène's
brother, is filming in the background. Needless to say, the Catholic
Church had not exactly welcomed us with open arms!
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The family group in front of the Mairie, with four of the bride and groom's five
(then) children all dressed up. This was a modern wedding! Charlie would have been in this photo, except that he was taking a nap at
home under the watchful eye of Mrs Gonzalvez, our housekeeper.
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Les enfants à la Mairie. Selon Joce, "En
fait, ça fait moins mal qu'une piqure!"
Joce, the maid of honor, reassured
the children: "it hurts less than an injection!"
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Nathalie disant à Karim, le témoin de Ian, selon Joce
: "T'as signé contre ton copain. Il va en prendre pour 50 ans
!"
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Joce, le témoin de Marie-Héléne, avec Alain.
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Below, the kids
playing during the reception. A lot of action here!
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Here is the bride again, framing herself with food and
flowers, which is after all what brides do!
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Back in the dining room at La Bellanderie with the wood paneling on the walls
and the bride's mother's paintings on the wood paneling. Jocelyne,
Marie-Hélène's maid of honor, is
behind us between Alain, her beau then and the father of her son, and Mamie, Marie-Hélène's grandmother, then
92 and full of vim. Uncle Daniel, Mamie's son, is next to her. In red is Véronique, the bride's cousin from Aix-en-Provence
Our only regret was the bride and groom's absent parents: only one, Grand-père,
was still with us for the wedding.
Well, to be honest, we wouldn't have minded a honeymoon
either!
It was a very special day. The knot tied, we could finally relax for a while. Not for long,
of course, because we moved house, profession and children to Santa Cruz not five weeks later.
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