Advertisement
Published: October 15th 2010
Edit Blog Post
The wedding was phenomenal ... Before we came to Europe I would dream about the wedding and what it would be like to be in the French countryside attending the wedding, enjoying wine, champagne, & food and meeting new people. The reality was so much more than I had dreamed. Max's mom and dad have a chambres d'hote on the upper level of the medieval village of Parthenay. It has a great side yard and garden and a view over the whole lower village.
On Thursday evening we all went out to a wonderful 4 hour French dinner at a very small restaurant in the village. All the courses and all the wine options and dessert and cheese and appetizers -- WOW! We left the restaurant at about 12:30am and walked through town. Each pub, tavern, and restaurant was doing a great business with people laughing and drinking wine and beer... I think "This is the life".
The Bed & Breakfast that we stayed at had a small apartment that was assigned to us. It was so nice to have some extra room and to sit on the couch in front of a huge rock fireplace. The house was
from the 14th or 15th century and was totally renovated several years ago. The owners, Trevor and Dorit, are very hospitable and provided great breakfasts. Trevor is a musician with a significant record (yes, vinyl records) collection. Sunday morning he played an Edith Piaf album for us. What a treat! It seems that everywhere we go we find new people with such interesting stories.
Friday morning we did a walking tour of the old city and then met up with the family later in the day. That evening there was a "cocktail" party in the side yard - candle light, stars, good wine and lots of company.
Saturday afternoon was the wedding. Danielle was the beautiful bride. Max's sister, his cousin and Danielle's aunt all sang. What talent they have! The ceremony was fairly simple but the setting was the stuff dreams are made of. The church is from the 14th or 15th century and presented the atmosphere of all those centuries. A true French village wedding.
After the wedding we all walked back to the house to another gathering in the side yard. More wine and cake and friends and family.
That evening was a
dinner reception in forge from the 14th century. The appertif was served in the gardens and then we were called into the meal. Two or three hours later the "cake" was served. It was a traditional french type desert. I have attached a picture since I am having trouble figuring out how to describe it.
As the music started and the dancing commenced the disco ball started to turn and it presented a great contrast - 15th century walls and ceiling beams and a bunch of speckled lights on the ceiling...
At 12:30am the bride and groom were off to a night in a chateau and we being the old Americans were ready to find our way home.
Sunday we made our way to Paris... This was a VERY long adventure... The traffic was slow to say the least. It took hours to go about 10 kilometers.
Once we got here the apartment turned out to be just wonderful... a good location... with a great courtyard... It is quiet but the minute you step out the door of the courtyard you find a busy, crammed full of traffic, street with lots of restaurants, stores and businesses...
It is just Paris.
More later.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.23s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 10; qc: 53; dbt: 0.0482s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb