GETTING MARRIED IN FRANCE, WEDDINGS IN FRANCE
Getting married in France * weddings in France * marriage plans * marrying a Frenchman * getting married in France * cheap accommodation * discount ferry travel * Chateaux * car hireHaving lived in France for the last 15 years it was a forgone conclusion that my daughter would most probably end up falling in love and getting married to a Frenchman. However, as a doting father, nothing could have prepared me for the moment when her future husband came to ask me for her hand in marriage.
Her fiancé came round the other evening and sheepishly asked if he could have a private word with me. My initial thoughts were that he wanted to borrow some money or needed my advice about something or other, but marriage was the furthest thing from my mind.
They have been together for four years, bought a house and lived together for two years, so most people would think that getting married was the next step. However, I had brought up the subject of marriage with my daughter just a few weeks before and she had stated categorically that marriage had not been discussed and was the furthest thing from her mind.
Furthermore, they are like chalk and cheese. He is a quiet, affable easy going character with what appears to be little ambition other than to have an easy life, and my daughter is a fiery, lively ambitious young woman with her eyes set firmly on the future. In short he has his hands full in every sense of the word, although he handles her very well.
So when he sheepishly asked me for my daughter's hand in marriage; a nice touch and typical of this polite young man; I sat there for a few seconds whilst my brain tried to comprehend what he had actually said. I realised that my mouth was moving up and down but no words were coming out and then I said. "Are you sure?" and then "Do you really know what you are taking on?"
Hardly the words he expected to hear and certainly not the speech I had being planning since the day I first held her in my arms. My initial concerns weren't for my daughter, they were for this young man who was taking on a wildcat. My daughter is more than capable of looking after herself, and I have no fears about this young man hurting her in anyway, nor ceasing to love her for the rest of her life. I just envisaged her marrying someone with as strong a personality and character as her.
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When they bought their first house, she was just 21. Her fiancé didn't think they would be able to buy a property and just tagged along for the ride in her wake. She found the property, made the offer, closed the deal, arranged the mortgage, drew up the plans, and he; well he just signed where she told him to. He thought he had bought a house for life and she just saw it as a stepping stone to the next property and a way to make money and move up in life.
Bless him; his little feet haven't touched the ground since they day they met and whilst I didn't expect the relationship to last; basically because I always envisaged her meeting someone with the same ambition and drive as her, I now realise that this is most probably a perfect match with her fiancé being the rock for her to build her life on.
None of us has the right to choose or interfere in the choices our children make in choosing their partners, but if I had been able to make a choice based on character alone, I would have chosen this young man.
Now I have the job of helping to arrange and pay for a wedding in France.
