Wedding of Agnès and Julian

Meal

Eventually, we all made our way to the Tervelet for the meal, with Agnès and Julian arriving in Jean-Marc's Citroën DS. By now everything was about an hour behind schedule. The hall seemed rather cramped and it seemed to take ages for everyone to get their starter. By the time the main course was served, the guy who brought it had been waiting for over an hour. The peachy peaches came from the farm of Agnès' cousin Thierry. June (Patricia's sister) made the wedding cake and Virginie (the daughter of one of Agnès' cousins) made the pièce montée.

The singing was started by Auguste. Other people who sang included Marceline, Noëlle, Michel, Henri, Patricia and June, Agnès Baltzer, Gilles, Kate, Mélanie (with help from Claudine) and a large group of cousins, together with Agnès' sisters, nephews Guillaume and Damien and Mélanie.

We started off the dancing with a Gay Gordons: just about the only dance for a couple which Julian can attempt. The dance floor was soon filled with people dancing the Gay Gordons followed by a Canadian Barn Dance and finally a progressive Canadian Barn Dance. Later, the Roux family (with Dédé deputising for Maurice) performed their own Scottish Country Dance.

The final sketch of the night was a fashion parade based very loosely on events in the lives of Agnès and Julian. Pictured below are Céline and Philippe, Thierry and Noëlle, Claudine and Normand and just about the whole cast, including Julian in Claudine's wedding dress.

One more tradition at French weddings (in some regions) is that of the chichole, when the married couple is tracked down, woken up and have to drink a mixture of white wine and melted chocolate from a chamber pot. They, in return, provide coffee and croissants for the intruders.