So on Saturday at ‘half three’ (that’s 3:30 – and not literally ‘half of three’ – which would be 1.5 – or 1:30 as I would have guessed) the wedding itself got going.
The wedding itself was a beautiful affair. We weren’t quick enough to beat out the relatives who sat on the side that was in the shade. So 3:30 – in a chair facing directly to the sun in the South-West sky, in a black suit. It was a bit warm – but singing “Lord of the Dance” and trying not to slip into my horrible Irish accent was plenty of fun.
From the moment Derv & Stephen walked back down the aisle, the champagne bottles were popped – and from then until supper there was NON STOP food & drink. All sorts of things from frois gras, salmon, gespacho, melon soup, oysters, some sort of fruit sculpture, smoked salmon, shallots…..I can’t even remember half of it. This was over on the other (shady) side of the chateau, overlooking the vineyards. This went on while a silver-haired frenchman played what one could only imagine were old french love songs on his accordion. 
Our friend Jenn took us on a bit of a tour of the chateau – there were massive rooms with huge open stone fireplaces and bear-claw tubs. There were so many rooms – and I couldn’t count the number of times I heard : “this one room is bigger than my flat in London!” There was a theatre room in the basement where the requisite slide show was being played, there were massive winding stair-cases, and a children’s playroom (next to the children’s dorm) that felt the size of our first house.
Then it was on to the barn for the supper…
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