No Pictures (désolé) - BUT a Fun Story

Preface: 

Weddings in France are done a bit differently.  First of all, the official wedding must be performed by a government official.  In some cases that’s it – no further ceremony.  But, often the next stop is for the religious ceremony (which can only happen after the official one).  Whether it’s one ceremony or two, a celebration and reception often follow. 

Also, we have seen some fun “bachelorette parties” here in France… A day or so before the wedding, the friends of the bride often “kidnap” her and take her away for some merriment.  This can take the form of dressing her in funny clothes and then walking around town with her, walking down the street with her while singing funny songs, etc. etc. 

Here’s what happened recently on our quiet little street, rue Moncey:

A few days ago two or three cars drove up and parked across the street from the apartment building next door.  Suddenly lots of young women jumped out and started dancing to some loud music, using air horns, and making that unique high-pitched celebratory noise women in the Middle East and North Africa make.  Definitely, a party in progress!  The celebration continued in the street for a while until they had the bride-to-be with them, and then they all piled back into the cars and left.  A couple of hours later, they returned, celebrated in the street some more, dropped off the bride-to-be, and left.

A few days later, the same thing happened – only with men and lots more cars!  They were dancing in the street and generally having a great time. (A couple of them also got onto the top of a van and were dancing on it.)  It was quite the spectacle!  Neighbors up and down the street were leaning out their windows to watch, and pedestrians stopped on the sidewalks and enjoyed the fun.  This went on for quite a while – the air horns blared, the music played, people danced, the confetti flew, fire crackers went off, and LOTS of pictures were taken of each other by celebrants.  (One of the cars was flying an Algerian flag, so we assume we were spectators in part of a French wedding celebration Algerian-style although everyone’s clothes were “European”.)

Finally, the bride emerged, and the groom escorted her to their limo.  The skirt to her wedding dress was so voluminous that it took an attendant and the groom some time to push it all into car.  The groom had to go around and get in on the other side of the car – there was no way he could follow the bride into the limo from her side.

Then they were off – at least 14 cars’ worth of celebrators with 3-4 driving up to join them.  All with horns blaring and some with celebrants hanging out of car windows while they sang or shouted.  Quite a sendoff for the bride and groom and some fun entertainment for all of the rest of us!

PS-A baby, being carried around in his car seat by his father, slept through it all.