When a good friend from university sent me an invite down to the South of France for a wedding, away from the cold of Scotland and with friends flying in from America and Germany, who was I to refuse?
Everyone had told me that French weddings are long. And by long they meant the bride and groom's day started at 10am and finished at 3am. How do you survive such a long day you may ask? The simple answer: lots of food in small portions.
9am: The wedding wasn't till 2pm so we did the sensible thing when in France - hunted down patisseries for breakfast (I would like to say I was joking, but we visited 3 patisseries and 2 coffee shops in 3 hours).
2pm: Full of carbs we made it to the wedding, without lunch, for a beautiful service in French and English (and a bit of Austrian).
4pm: The service finished and we headed outside to be greeted with spreads that the church had provided for our friends - from savory, to sweet and a small drinks reception in the sun whilst photos were taken.
5pm: We arrived at the evening venue to be greeted with more snacks - raw veggies and what we think was an anchovy paste, sticks of cheese, prosciutto, olives and tomato in the couple's initials, along with a drinks table.
7pm: In the UK you would normally get a main between 5 and 7, but we played some wedding games instead.
7:30pm: Starters arrived (finally). I am vegan and there wasn't even a vegetarian option (which sums up french food), but they made me a dish of sun-dried tomatoes and spinach. The others got the dish below.
9:30pm: More games and then our main course was finally served. Dauphinoise potatoes, meat, green beans in prosciutto and roasted vine tomatoes - small portions, but after the day's snacking probably perfect. I had been advised to bring my own food (which I did) and was instead surprised with a plain baked potato, plain green beans and roasted tomatoes. Not quite as fancy as everyone else's, but I appreciated that the chefs went out of their way to make it.
11:30pm: After speeches it was announced that there was a cheese platter. France you spoil your guests.
Midnight: I had been told that the groom's uncle was a patisserie owner. What I hadn't expected was the lack of the traditional wedding cake, replaced instead by a version of the croquembouche (a traditional French wedding pastry). Normally a tower of cream filled Choux pastry balls, theirs was shaped into two interlocking rings and cut after they poured a champagne fountain. If that wasn't enough, there was even a chocolate fountain and fresh fruit!
2am: Seeing as I was flying home early the next day I couldn't stay to the 3am finish, but all I know is that with all the food we had I could have kept going.
France, your food was amazing (even if I couldn't eat most of it), my friend made a beautiful bride, and the wedding was an amazing feast full of happiness and love (a nice break to the winter semester as well).