A French Weekend! - wedding n friends

Bonjour! Bonjour! Bonjour!

Well i guess now u can make out that i have been in France.

Thursday: Lemme begin my long post with thursday, Thursday morning Marianne came over with Jeanne and Alexis in the morning from Hamburg, i went to pick them up at the Airport. Then as Céline, our friend who was getting married on 31st had requested us to make colorful place cards we sat down to finish up those, though i had got the basic paper ready n we just had to cut n stick them n put ribbons it took us a lot of time and we were doing that till late in the night. Marianne wanted to make a special gift for the newly weds a Taj Eiffel as the groom was Indian n bride, French so we sat down at night on Photoshop and turned the minarets of Taj into Eiffel and pasted photos of Céline n Irfan as well,Here in the collage u can have a look at our Creative efforts.

Friday: On Friday we started for Besancon, Marianne's hometown around 5 pm and reached there around 8 pm. There we saw Marianne's 10 day old niece Astrid a very cute tiny little thing. After that we had amazing dinner at Crystelle (Marianne's sister) place where we had stayed over for the night, Though we cannot speak any French and Marianne's sister's family hardly speaks any other language, we had a comfortable dinner with special salads and some Yummy cheese special from the native place of Jill and French wine, i had never eaten such yummy cheese n i was telling Vivek its a real pleasure and we feel so lucky to be able to enjoy the true day to day French way of living which we as indians as tourists could never have had access to.

Saturday: So the wedding day arrives, The wedding was of one of our Indian friend Irfan with french friend Céline. Irfan had been with Vivek in the same University and the same hostel in Erlangen, Germany and Céline we came to know together from Irfan. Céline always made amazing Crépes for us and i miss them since i shifted away from Erlangen. Céline had been to India last december and they had got engaged there so now it was their wedding time, I was so excited for their wedding that Vivek told me that maybe i am even more excited than the wedding couple ;). Well that's me.

So on Saturday after a breakfast of french bread and tea, we started for Villeneuve-sur-Yonne (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villeneuve-sur-Yonne), the place of the wedding, As on french Highways there is a lot of toll we found them to be always free and without any traffic jam, by 10.30 we had reached the hotel where the reception had to take place and then we met Raghu Priya and many acquaintances n friends from Germany there. Together with them we went to the city centre where Céline and Irfan had arranged for a city tour. I found really nice that Céline and Irfan took out time specially to be there with us for that round inspite of it being their wedding day. We walked with a French guide who tried to explain stuff also in English in between. The place was a typical old French town. After the sightseeing round, we all wanted to have some lunch, n u wont believe it everything was closed there for the afternoon. They close shops there from 12.30 -2.30 in the afternoon, and there was no Mc Donald also:-(, so after walking around a lot we finally found a place to eat and Céline requested the owner to take our orders and fulfill them rapidly and then we went back to hotel La Fontaine aux Muses (http://www.newfr.net/html/fontaine/), and on the way we got lost, so we were a little late. Marianne n me n Priya had decided to wear indian clothes, so i helped Marianne into Saree and then got into mine n got dressed n in the procedure we got little late, so that when we arrived at the Rathouse 5 minutes late everyone was waiting for us as Vivek n Marianne were the witnesses. The ceremony was started but unfortunately everything was in French, They spoke a lot about Céline and then they were asked to say yes, Irfan said a very low yes and was asked to repeat again ;), and Céline said a big yes, Then they exchanged rings and signed and then the witnesses were asked to sign. Then the couple had their wedding kiss and then we all went out and as the couple came out we threw flower petals on them. After that we all walked beside a river and came to the place where Aperitifs had been organized. Along with French delicacies we enjoyed the Champagne and also a enjoyed the so many compliments about our saris and also so many people wanted to click our photographs and Céline later told me that her grandmother wanted to have Saree for herself now.
The below collage shows some of the lovely snaps of the couple.



Now in India we generally decorate the room for the bride n groom with flowers so we decided to buy some roses n do the same for Céline n Irfan. For that we unluckily had to leave the Aperitif place early so we missed the honking till the hotel part :-(.For me thats the best part coz all the cras go together honking all way from the wedding place to the hotel. Then me n Priya went to the french supermarket Casino the only place we knew cd maybe have some flowers and was open. We went there and unluckily as we dont know any french we had a hard time getting what we want. We explained the person sitting on the counter that we want flowers, for that we had to use our hand gestures and point at some photos of flowers and then she said ahhh la Fleur and pointed where they were. We went where she had pointed but found some really droopy Tulips which we didnt like so i went to another lady and asked Fleur plastik intending to aks for plastic flowers, she said ahhh fleur de plastique and then said no meaning they had none. Then i took her to the tulips and pointing saying that this is Un does she have two or more of the same, so u can imagine me knowing n speaking 123 in French n trying to explain finally she understood and then she got some special flowers from inside the shop and garden for us, some lovely orange rose, so u see my communication skills are indeed very good ;)), and i must say its a misconception that French are not friendly. Well so now u know my adventure, we went back to hotel n changed into comfortable westerns and with one of Céline's good friend Angelique, Marianne, me n priya went to decorate their room. We were so happy and excited about all that Marianne even wanted to get married again for the decoration. We were so excited and wanted to be there to see the pleasant surprise on the Couple's face.

Well lemme tell u about the reception, again we had some champagne and some small delicacies to begin with and then came the long French dinner was yummy with amazing wines. In between Céline and Irfan were made to play some typical games. And then the owner of the hotel played lovely Jazz for us. so imagine being in a French hotel with live Jazz, was good, then came the dancing part, we all danced on some techno, some french and some hindi music. And then we were too tired and went off to sleep waiting for the morning to hear about the reaction of the surprise of the flowers.In the below collage you can see some of our snaps.

We will like to thank here Céline and Irfan for the most memorable time and the lovely wedding infact our very first European wedding. Thanx again for the lovely invitation, lovely hospitality and the way u took care of all your guests, was indeed a great pleasure for us to be there.MERCI BEAUCOUP!!! I really think it was so nice of you both to be there with all your guests always and have time to spend with all of them. We wish both of you a very very happy married life and wonderful moments together and Congratulations again!

Sunday: We got up at 8.30 and got dressed and went for breakfast and then chatted with everyone. Regarding our surprise i guess the wedding couple was too tired at 4.30 am to respond to that so we hope they were actually as excited about it as we were about doing it for them. Céline was indeed so nice that she gave away some of the Bouquets she had recd for the wedding to some of her friends as well. Then we clicked some more snaps, and bought some special wine from the hotel (The hotel actually has its own Vineyards). Then after a long bye to everyone we left for Besancon this time with Priya with us. Just after 15 km Marianne started feeling queasy in the stomach n we had to stop for an hour on the highway so that she wd feel a little better before we began again. Then we had a good ride to Besancon, and again met Marianne's family had a nice lunch of cheese and special fruit cake as it had been Marianne's mom's bday on 31st. It was Priya's first trip to Marianne's family's place so it was nice introducing her to everyone and showing her around. In the end we had to start back for Basel and came back tired but happy after an exciting Weekend. Thanx MArianne for everything and for the lovely stay at Chalzuele:-).MERCI BEAUCOUP!!!

Hope my big post wasn't too boring but well i wanted to share everything with u guys.

Here u can have a look at the gift i made for my friends. They have also put it up at their blog. Here i would like to thank my Swiss girl friends and Marianne for helping me choose the music for the video.
I made a little blunder here in the credits the song John Denver - annie's song should be replaced by Edith Piaff - La Vie en Rose.

Wishing you all a nice week and then a nice long Easter Weekend ahead! Will be back with more exciting post next week!