Day 2- The Wedding

After a rough night sleep, I awoke around 9am and my roomies and I decided to venture out to find some coffee. We had absolutely no idea where we were but my GPS had "points of interest" which we used to try to find a restaurant/cafe. It lead us to some house down a long dirt road (no sign)- no one had the guts to go up to the house and ask, "can we have some coffee?" so we just kept driving. Not far down the road was a tiny village called, La Ferriere Sur Risle. It was the most adorable village I had ever seen. It was equipped with a patisserie, market, bar, post office, pharmacy and antique shop. We stopped at the Patisserie to buy some delicious croissants and pastries. It was a beautiful day so we walked through the village to the next one called, Ajou. There we found a little cafe/bar where we drank some much needed coffee-or expresso. It was awesome! A little dog came over and welcomed us. We headed back to our cottage and got ready for the wedding. David and Beth came to the cottage to pick up Diane and Nikki, and Philip and I were taking Adrianne and Shona with us. We told the others about the cafe and they all wanted to go again before the wedding. So we went back and sat outside this time- the scene was so beautiful- it was one of my favorite parts of the trip. I sat there and savored the moment- what a great memory that was. La Ferriere sur Risle and Ajou are separated by a river of which we walked across the bridge and got some great pictures. We all had to tear ourselves away from the village and make our way to Louviers, where we would go to the mayor's "salle des mariages," or "room of marriages." Weddings in France are done in a secular way- not religious. The mayor conducting the ceremony added a personal touch to it by reading a beautiful poem of which I could not understand, but that was Ok. They then signed some documents and it was official! Outside of the building was a beautiful courtyard and gazebo which was very picturesque.
After some outdoor pictures, we headed over to the local Kingdom Hall for a marriage talk given by one of the brothers from the French congregation in North Carolina. Again, didn't understand much, but it was nice of Ryan to spend the last 10 minutes of his talk in English. I did get to sing the song, as we were given a print out of the song in French- maybe I could learn French?? :-) After the talk, Philip, Adrianne, Shona, and myself headed back in to the town of Louvier and stopped at a local pub for a drink. It was so much fun! We had some good laughs while becoming a spectacle to the local folks. Rick Steves' says the French view Americans as loud and obnoxious and I think we had proved them right, but we didn't care. We had fun. Besides, everyone was extremely nice. One of the waiters was so excited to practice his English with us. It was awesome to have Adrianne and Shona with us to speak the French.
We made our way back to the cottage in Sebecourt for the wedding reception. We enjoyed coctails and appetizers while getting acquainted with new friends. Dinner consisted of a dish called "Tartiflette." Here is what is said of this dish,
"This is a traditional recipe from the Alps region; this is a gratin of potatoes with a strong cheese, the Reblochon, a true French bistro dish." We also enjoyed salad with fresh tomatoes and a delicious dressing that I have no idea how to even describe.
(I would like to make mention that Philip is vegetarian- the French do not understand this concept and does not even have a word for "Vegetarian" in it's language- when people would ask Philip why he was picking out the bacon from the Tartiflette, or why he didn't eat the sausage the night before, he would tell them he didn't eat meat and they would say, "oh, like Tanesha!" who is vegetarian as well).
After dancing to a variety of music- half hip-hop, half salsa (the French love Salsa music and dancing) we enjoyed delicious little cakes for desert (Tanesha could not find the traditional American wedding cake) and a desert wine. A sister sang a beautiful French love song to the bride and groom followed by more dancing. I finally turned in around 1:30 am but I was told that the party was going until about 4 am-the French love to party! Even the seniors stayed past midnight!