A wedding passes through our SW France hamlet

[Ian]

Arriving in a splendid vintage Peugeot (1920s, I believe), followed by a rare Renault Caravelle rear-engined sportscar (made from 1958-68).

There was a local wedding last Saturday here in our corner of SW France The groom, Valentin, is from our hamlet and his bride, Céline, from a village about 10 miles northwest of us. They have both set up home here, too. The formal ceremony was held at the Mairie (town hall) of the nearest village, which is 3 miles southeast of us, and they then proceeded to the bride's village for the social celebration. This meant they drove through the hamlet and we all came out to wish them well as they passed through. In fact the local tradition here is that the newlyweds stop in the centre of the hamlet, on the main road, to cut a ribbon strung across the road. Fortunately, our main road only sees maybe 1 or 2 cars every 5 minutes or so, normally, because the road was effectively blocked for about 15 minutes

[MJ224]

Well caught Ian, lovely bride and a lovely Caravelle

[BDennis]

Wow great photos Ian. Love that tradition of cutting the ribbon! May they have many years of happiness together.

[sapper]

A proper celebration, thanks Ian.

[Luv2shoot]

Great candids of the celebration.
Weddings are happy events and you certainly captured that.
LORELL

[Olybirder]

That is quite an event and you have captured if beautifully Ian. That Caravelle is a great looking car. Nice work.

Ron

[griffljg]

A very special moment in time very well captured!

Those are great!

[Bruce Clarke]

Very jolly, nicely caught Ian.

[Melaka]

That must have been great fun.

[Ian]

Thanks everyone. We didn't actually know the couple or the groom's parents, who live not far from us, but now we have been introduced so it looks like we will get to know them better. It was great fun even though we were only bystanders and not part of the wedding party. One person we do know very well locally reminisced that her own wedding took place in a very similar fashion, cutting a ribbon across the road, almost 30 years ago!

This was actually our second wedding in France, the first was in the Vendée and I was the unofficial official photographer. Fortunately, the pictures came out well! While there were some similarities, there were also some local traditions there that are quite different to where we are now (about 100km west of the first wedding).

Next month there is the 'fêtes des voisins' - literally meaning a party for all the neighbours; looking forward to that as well!

Ian

[OM USer]

You have captured the spirit of the occassion well.

[Ian]

I found out today, that the ribbon-cutting was a complete surprise to the bride (Céline). It's her husband who is the local lad and although she's only from a few miles away, the ribbon-cutting seems to be a particular tradition of our hamlet!