Weddings are back in the news

Several of our young friends are relieved that they can finally have the celebration they had hoped for. All these revised plans reminded us of the most complicated wedding we’d been to. We took a very early flight from Heathrow to Paris, checked into our hotel, changed our clothes then took a taxi to a church somewhere in the northeast of the city. Our young friend, a teacher at a school with which my school exchanged pupil visits, looked so different. Since I had last seen her she had sadly lost both her parents in a car accident on the Peripherique. A few years earlier we’d spent a lovely evening with them in their apartment overlooking Sacre Coeur. So sad. Now our friend had become blonde and was wearing an enormous meringue-style dress. After the ceremony we were taken to the Chateau de Chantilly where we waited many hours in the sun whilst endless photographs were taken, with just a glass of champagne. Our young son bravely dealt with the long, long wait until eventually we sat down to enjoy the meal. It must have been about 10p.m. when a spectacular suckling pig pierced with sparklers was paraded through the different rooms. It was delicious and probably my favourite of the dozen or so courses. By midnight we were exhausted but still impressed by the croquembouche which appeared, then we found a quiet corner to just try to doze. By 2 a.m. we found a ride back to the city, woke the hotel night porter and eventually fell into bed. When we finally woke at about 10 a.m. our poor son was covered in spots which the local pharmacist insisted was a fish allergy, even though he’s never liked fish. Chickenpox was the real diagnosis and the flight home was awkward…To cap it all, when we arrived home I was expected to go straight out again to a baptism party. So tired, but what a weekend.