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Published: June 12th 2007
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We flew to France via England, spending a week in Nailsworth with Griff’s daughter and her family. It was a pleasant enough weekend, with more than a little awkwardness thrown in, but I don’t feel like it’s my story to tell, so I’ll say no more about it.
FLOCELLIERE The main motivation behind our trip to Europe in ’05 was to attend the wedding of one of Griff’s best friends to his lovely lady of the French persuasion. The wedding of Phil and Soizick was going to be a grand affair. We were invited to stay in a chateau in the Loire Valley for a whole week, the wedding ceremony to be held midway through with general revelry at either end.
We flew in to a small northern airport (in retrospect this was a strange choice, as there were many airports much closer to the chateau, including Nantes). I can’t remember the name of the airport now, but it was very close to St. Malo, where we spent our last weekend in France on the way home. We caught the train from Rennes all the way to Nantes. The first train was like an old school bus,
no air conditioning in blistering French summer heat with lovely vinyl seats and sweaty neighbours for a couple of hours. The second train was a whole different story, I guess because we were closer to a few major cities.
Felix and Claire met us in Nantes; they’d hired a car in Paris and had spent the day on the road already. We all piled in the car together and negotiated the outward bound motorways of Nantes. Fe and Claire had clearly had a stressful day so far and were, to put it bluntly, at each others throats. There’s nothing like driving in a foreign country’s cities to rub you up the wrong way. Griff, of course, couldn’t resist stirring them up even further and as a consequence, the trip was a little bit tense until we were well on our way to Flocelliere.
We laughed when we finally pulled in to the chateau, it was so gorgeous. I couldn’t believe we’d be staying a whole week in a real castle! Phil and Soiz met us and showed us up to our room. We had a room adjacent to Felix and Claire in the ‘new’ wing which had been
built in the 18th century and was decorated accordingly. Our bed had a canopy above it and the room had big sash windows on opposite sides overlooking the gardens on one side and the glass roof of the hall on the other. Tres magnifique. The bathroom was pretty special too; I had several decadent baths while we were there. Some of the others, notably the bridesmaids, were staying at the other end of the castle in the ‘old keep’. This was a severe looking tower building built in the 1500s. Apparently it had beds to match its age. I think we were lucky to get the room we did.
The weather while we were in Flocelliere was spectacular. We had blazing blue skies every day. Of course, the heat did make it a little difficult to do much during the day beyond drinking wine and lounging about. Claire and I spent a day in the nearest town, again the name escapes me, where I splashed out on some very nice paintbrushes. We also explored the castle grounds and the village of Flocelliere. Very pretty pale stone buildings and a bakery someone visited every day for our breakfasts of croissants
and pastries.
Every night we’d all gather together for a huge barbeque style meal with copious wine and cheese. The dinners were all prepared by the talented Mesnage women (Soizick’s family) for which I’m still very grateful. It is difficult to insert yourself into such a tight knit group where everyone has their job so most of us kept away, lending ourselves to the clean-up the next morning. It was a fantastic social week and I think everyone had as good a time as I did.
THE WEDDING The wedding itself went flawlessly. Soizick had asked me to help with photographs. It was a pleasure, but unfortunately I only had Griff’s little canon digital to take them on. Still, I think I got some nice shots. As honorary photographer I had access to the girls getting ready which is always a large part of any wedding. It actually went really well. Claire helped with all the hair, the bride was dressed and made up in record time (of course, she’s gorgeous to begin with which makes it easier) and even the bridesmaids, after a short drama over finding underwear without VPL, were dressed and dolled up appropriately
with minimum fuss.
The ceremony went smoothly and quite quickly, which was just as well due to the heat. The groom and groomsmen all behaved themselves nicely and there was even a violinist (courtesy of the chateau owners). After the ceremony we had champagne (Veuve Cliquot) and speeches and sit down for dinner. The meal was very French and very good.
After the food the party started, with lots of dancing and even more champagne and wine. I’m quite proud to say I was one of the last ones dancing, although that didn’t do me any favours the next day. It was a bloody good party, made even better by the fact that we all had a couple of days to recover in such lovely surroundings.
At the end of the week we all rounded up to leave the chateau, the newly weds to embark on their honeymoon, others to head home, Griff and I to head north again for a couple of days in St. Malo before flying back to London and then home to NZ.
ST. MALO St. Malo is a small walled town on the northern coast of France. It’s spread from
the original walls, of course, and there is a distinct difference between the old town and what lies outside the walls. We stayed in a little hotel in the middle of the old town. It was hilarious. The whole building was several centuries old and the floors were so crooked as to be laughable. Walking along the hallways was like walking a trick floor at a fun park. Our room was tiny and the whole thing was on a very distinct angle, tilted toward the outside left hand corner of the building. But it was more than adequate.
St. Malo was a cute town with a dramatic coast complete with mini fortresses on the outlying rocks. We wandered around town, walked down on the beach and generally soaked up the atmosphere. I bought myself a very nice pair of shoes.
It was a quiet couple of days and a nice way to wind down before our flight home. We flew back to London with just a few hours to kill before going out to Heathrow for our homeward bound flight.
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Griff
non-member comment
Any additional stirring up of Felix and Claire that I have been credited for was accidental. From memory I laughed at the tense situation and this was misinterpreted as a "stir" which resulted in angry glances and subtle silencing of myself by the story teller. I'm innocent I tell you! (at least in this case)