Flore and Christian's Big Day!

So today, on this sunny Saturday (with heat waves hitting France with full force!) was Flore's and Christian's big day, time to tie the knot. The grand occasion was taking place in their home town, at Le Roche sur Foron. We made our way down to La Roche with Chie and Geoff, dropping them off at their hotel and then checking it at ours (a nice place, but a bit outside the city center – we were very happy with the swimming pool though, given the heat!).

After a brief walk around the historic center, Mathilde headed off to get her hair fixed, whilst I joined the rest of the gang for lunch at the main square. Great to see everybody again – although the gang was the same as last night. After a couple of aperitifs, a simple but filling lunch, and some socializing, we parted our separate ways to get ready for the evening's festivities. Naturally, a quick jump in the swimming pool was absolutely called for – the heat was on, as they say...

The evening's festivities started off at the town hall (that's where all the legal papers are signed). It was a very nice little ceremony, it looks like the mayor (or vice-mayor) had actually put a fair bit of effort into the speech – in fact it sounded more like a best man's speech than the usual formulaic stuff the mayors come out with at French weddings. He even gave little Lilian a medal (for being a nice boy?). After all the paperwork had been signed, and all the photographs had been taken, the couple headed off with their children Lilian and Melodie, in true French style – yes, you guessed it, in a Citroën 2CV! How cool is that?

The post-wedding celebrations were taking place in a true Savoyard castle – now that's what I call style. Food-wise, everything was tip top, starting with the starter munchies and aperitifs on the terrace, continuing with the spit-roasted pig (a true delight) as well as all the other stuff that went with it. One thing is sure about French weddings – you always eat well at them! We were seated at the “French foreign legion table” (ie. the French friends from our group who used to live in the UK) – does this mean I'm becoming French ? Hmm...

As can be expected when the groom is called Christian, the entertainment was well taken care of. Most of the entertainment was actually provided by the groom himself, as he sang together with his band, and then proceeded to conquer the dance floor, running around topless towards the end of the evening. I think you've guessed it, everybody had an absolutely brilliant time! There were rather a few strange photos in my camera, of people I don't really know – I wonder who took them (surely not me!?).
A few hours of mad partying later, we were happy to be whisked off to our hotel by Philippe (him and Aniko were staying at the same hotel as us). There was a bit of a nasty surprise in store of us, though, as we'd handed in our key at reception before heading off. And naturally the reception was closed. Thankfully, I actually had a look behind the reception desk, and found our key, before jumping over the desk and breaking down the office door ;).

The next day, we headed over to the happy couple's for the traditional “post-wedding brunch”. Yummie, more eating and drinking. After a couple of hours of eating, drinking and socializing (I like that about France – a lot of that taking place here!) it was time for us to say our tear-filled goodbyes to everybody and hit the road!

We stopped for the night at a small village in the Ardeche called Saint-Andéol-de-Berg, where Mathilde had booked a rather nice Bed and Breakfast. We were quite lucky to be there during the village fete. We were treated to the local version of punch at the rather reasonable price of one Euro per glass. There was also a petanque competition (the Lyon version of the game), which was rather entertaining to watch.

The next day, we had a brief stop at Orange, before heading home. I've been keen to visit Orange for quite a while, since I've heard the Roman theater is rather impressive. And impressive it was! It was built during the 1^st century AD, and is possible the best-preserved Roman theater in Europe (certainly in France) – it is one of only three Roman theaters in the world with the wall behind the scene still standing. The audio-guide visit was rather interesting; tracing the theaters colourful history over the centuries, and also going into quite a lot of detail in describing the role of the theater in Roman culture. The rest of Orange is not overly interesting, and the historic museum opposite to the theater is actually rather disappointing (I would've expected more items from the Roman era to be on display...). But the theater on its own certainly was worth the diversion!

From Orange, we drove back home without further stops. All in all, a memorable week spent in the Alps, with a fantastic wedding to top it off. Merci beaucoup, Flore et Christian!