An American in Provence

This weekend, Alain and I went to the 100% French wedding (versus the 75% of so French wedding that we had) of his friends Coralie and Sylvain nearby in the town of Hyères, where Lucie, Nicolas, and Manon are living.

When we woke up Saturday morning the sky was grey and intermittently raining. We hoped that it would get better later on. We left for Hyères around 9:45, taking the toll highway (3 euros in tolls). It took us a little less than an hour and half, but it would have been shorter if we had known exactly where we were going. Luckily, beach traffic wasn't too bad and besides a slight detour in Toulon we managed to find our way.

Lucie and Nicolas fixed lunch for us, and we played with Manon. The ceremony at the City Hall started around 3:30, so Nicolas dropped us off a little after 3. It was packed. As it was on a Saturday and in a bigger town, there were 12 weddings scheduled for the same day at the City Hall! It was strange because there were about 3 other brides in the area, waiting for their turn or having just got done. All the guests got mixed up and just as one group was finishing another would drive off honking and stuff. Alain met one of his old friends, Stéphane there. They did their Master's together in Marseille. I had been worried about not knowing anyone there and having to talk to complete strangers in French, but it turned out okay.

Coralie's dress was pretty, not sure what company made it, but it had sort of a pick-up look and no train. The bodice was covered in lace, and she had a piece of lace around her neck and lace gloves. Her bouquet was small white lilies, and she had fake ones in her hair. The groom wore a black suit and an ivory vest. The Mayor was a woman, which is the first time I have seen a female Mayor here.
It was interesting to see how different couples (and brides especially) react emotionally to different parts of the day. Like I got emotional when the Mayor pronounced us married, but them not at all. Whereas she got very emotional walking down the aisle, but I was fine up until the Prayer we had written.
Then we walked to the church, which was very pretty, but much more austere than ours was. It was made of brick or stone with stained glass windows and no paintings. The priest was much younger than ours was, and actually played the guitar and sang the Psalm, which was the first time I have ever seen a Catholic priest do that!

After the church ceremony, we walked back to Lucie's and had some water and rested before driving out to the reception. The reception was a very pretty area, way out in the countryside with vineyards all around.
The reception started at 7:30 (actually, we didn't know we were supposed to drive out with the whole group to the reception right after the ceremony to take pictures, so we showed up later and they all wondered where we had been.)

The cocktail hour was quite nice, then we went inside. There were fifteen tables, decorated relatively simply with a candleabra at each table and some rose petals sprinkled around. They had a Chinese theme as they are going to China for their honeymoon. Each table was named after a different city or monument in China.

The entree was a buffet and the main dish was leg of lamb. I took a picture of the menu so that I would be able to remember everything we had.

Between courses, one of their friends got up and did some magic tricks. Not sure if it was planned ahead of time or not, but it was a nice addition. He did one trick where he had the groom pick a card out of a deck (a 2 of hearts), and show it to the audience but not to him. Then he took a piece of newspaper and said that the newpaper would magically reveal what card was picked. He burnt a hole into the paper, and the burnt design developed into two hearts. Get it, get it?!
Around midnight they brought out the piece montee, shaped as a little house. I didn't really get to enjoy our piece montee as I had no appetite on our wedding night, so it was nice to try another one. We left around 2:30.
It was so nice to go to another wedding, especially so soon after ours. After their ceremony I joked to A. that we could run in the church and quick say our vows. He said "not with this priest!". We danced a lot more than at our own wedding. It was fun. We left around 2:30 am to drive back to Lucie's for the night. The next day we played with Manon, ate breakfast, then lunch, then left around 3 to drive back to Marseille. (Below, Alain in his suit, the second time in less than a month. For someone who wears jeans and t-shirt every day to work, this is quite remarkable.)

Yep. It is about that time. The time of year that mom would absolutely hate in Provence. The really really hot season. People ask what the temperature is, and no matter what the thermometer says, there is only one answer. HOT. Because it always feels like it must most certainly be hotter than 28 Celsius. Perhaps they forgot a digit.
The one advantage over last summer is that this summer we won't be moving furntiture up three flights of stairs. Inland it is much cooler, as well as up in the North Pole. Hanna invited me to come visit her in Finland, I may just have to take her up on it. :)
It is so hot that even night does not bring much of a relief. We don't have air conditioning, which is not that rare in France. Now stores are starting to catch on, but a lot of homes do not have air conditioning, nor cars. Fans don't really do much other than make noise.
I thought, having spent 8 years in Virginia, that I was prepared for hot summers. Oh no. This is the kind of hot where I feel like I am going to have a panic attack and start ripping off clothes. I don't know if it is because it less humid or more humid or what, it is less supportable than Virginia. Oh I miss Colorado!
There really is nothing that can be done besides
a) take a shower
b) accept that you are going to be sweaty and nasty for several months because you got sweaty again right away
c) wish you could have a nice big piece of land with olive trees, a hammock, and a pool.
d) or at least air conditioning
e) try not to focus on the fact that it is only June, and that July and August are only going to be worse until it finally starts to break in September.
f) long for the days of fall and winter, until you remember that in the winter you were cursing the freezing cold Mistral wind and wishing summer was here
g) realize it is a vicious cycle and go take another shower.

Much to my chagrin, I have been spending a lot of time at La Poste lately. There are a few things I have noticed.
1. When waiting in line, it helps be elderly or pregnant. This is not a guarantee however.
2. Start your own home business, and get a Carte Professionelle. That way, you can go to the head of the line. You will get a lot of glares and mutterings, but you won't spend forever and a day waiting in line.

After many hours of standing in line and observing, I have come up with, drumroll please, Megan's Theory of Postaltivity.
It goes like this
amount of time you will spend waiting in line (w)
number of people ahead of you (n)
w=2n+2
So, roughly, if there are 10 people in line ahead of you you will spend 22 minutes waiting in line. This is to take into account the people who will jump in front of you.
Mind you, this isn't a Law yet, as much more sampling would be required- specifically, trying lots of different post offices in different parts of France at different times of the day. And frankly, I would much prefer My Year of Cheese if I must spend a year traveling around France.
This Theorem is independent of the number of tellers. There can be 15 tellers, 15 people waiting in line, and it will still take you 30 minutes. I don't know why.
The one thing that Going Postal is good for, besides verifying my theorem, is to practice my zen attitude.
Case in point- Monday afternoon, had to deposit some checks. There were 15 people ahead of me. This would normally be a time that you would think would be high volume of customers, thus more tellers would be available. Alas, no. There were two tellers, one was completely occupied with a man who I think was depositing his paycheck in cents. So, for the sake of our story, there was only one teller operational. Tempers and the temperature were running high. First a girl waltzes in, goes to the front of the line because she has the Carte Pro. Then an elderly man with an oxygen tank comes in, goes right to the front of the line without even a By Your Leave. I think people were about to strangle him with the cord on his oxygen tank. There were other elderly people who had come in, informed the last person in the line at the time that they were
behind them, then went to go sit on the side, waiting their turn. There was also a significantly pregnant woman waiting in line.
One youngish guy informs the lady behind him that he is going to go outside and smoke a cigarette and to please hold his place. On his way out he starts complaining loudly about the guy taking forever and a day with the other teller.

So here are the points of discussion in Megan's Memo to La Poste.
1) hire more tellers for goodness sake
2) have ATMs that can actually handle more than just giving out money. Ie. deposits!
3) have the precious customs forms, check deposit slips, etc. available on the other side of the window for people to start filling out ahead of time
4) have one teller line dedicated just to bank business, another one just for sending and receiving of packages, etc.
5) have an extra person who just fetches and carries packages from the storage room instead of having the tellers get up, lock their computer, wander aimlessly in the direction of the package room, spend a couple of minutes getting reaquainted with where the packages are, then finally wandering back in the direction of the window.

I like to believe that there are better post offices somewhere in France. It is a hope I am holding onto.

Going from being called Mademoiselle every five minutes to Madame is strange. Here in France they seem to use titles a lot more- when you enter a store "Bonjour X" (X being of course Madame, Mademoiselle, or Monsieur). These are then followed by Merci X, Au revoir X, etc. Of course, I still get called Mademoiselle a lot. Probably because I usually am wearing a backpack and have my hair up in a ponytail and they figure I am about 17. If I am with Alain we usually get a Monsieur et Madame. Or if I am more dressed up I can sometimes score a Madame. I never know what to do. Say, "Excusez-moi, C'est Madame, s'il vous plaît."?
Mademoiselle is technically for all unmarried women, whether they are 12 or 72. But I think most people would not call an older woman Mademoiselle, especially if they were unsure of her status.
Another blog discussion on this.
http://www.nakedtranslations.com/en/2006/05/000617.php
And further
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11923774/

While I wouldn't launch a petition to remove the word entirely from the vocabulary, it does seem strange to be confronted with it on an hourly basis. In the US most people do not use Miss to address women, it is usually Ms or Mrs. On the other hand, non married women say that it makes them feel old to be called Madame sometimes.

The day after the wedding, Mom and Dad had a brunch at the house that they had rented. So after checking out of the B&B (It was so nice, I wish we could have stayed another night, but there were things to do and people to see), taking stuff over to J&J's and picking up the rest of the stuff from the Château (Nicolas and Jacques drove in Nicolas's car, which had been decorated for the wedding- they got lots of honks and strange looks.) we went over there. We had a chocolate and pear wedding sheet cake, and we put our little cake topper on top. I had "Congratulations Alain and Megan" written on the top so that he could have his name first for once. :)
It was nice to see everyone again one last time before they took off for every corner of the world- US, Europe, Thailand.
Then we went to J&J's to see some of the people from his side, before driving back to Marseille for the night. The next morning we drove back out to Salon/Lancon to spend time with the various groups. All in all, we were quite exhausted but it was nice.
We picked up the photos from the photographer the following Saturday. For some reason, people seem to insist on spelling my name like the car- Mégane. But he did an excellent job overall.
So, once again, a big thank you to everyone who was able to come.