The Reception.

The reception site was over an hour and a half away, deep in the middle of wine country in the South of France.  We loaded the five of us, Debi's friends from abroad, and headed out on our adventure.  Even though I was still fighting jet lag, I managed to make it through the entire drive without falling asleep and without getting dizzy or carsick...a bit of a feat, considering the roads are narrow and windy and our driver was a little...well...you can probably imagine where I'm going with that.  :)

We arrived in the tiny little town of Jaujac and saw several cars full of Debi's family parked on the side of the road, waving us down.  Despite having directions to the reception site and knowing we were just minutes away, we stopped.  Apparently Debi had called her dad and asked everyone to hang out and wait for them at the square in this little town.  After about 15 minutes or so, and flagging down friends we knew were also headed to the reception, Debi and Nicolas rolled into town.  They parked their car and got out, and a little old man up on a balcony started calling to Debi.  She explained to me that the reception site was owned by the family of Nicolas's witness (like a "Best Man"), and the old man was his grandpa.  A few minutes later he came down and opened his garage and they started up his very old convertible for them to ride the rest of the way to the reception in--it was ADORABLE!  :)  

We loaded up the cars and followed them the last few minutes to the reception site, honking and making a parade out of the procession.  The hall was a big, old stone building in the countryside with big apartments up above--it was awesome because it meant we all got to stay there that night!  So we got all our stuff settled into the apartments and headed down for the reception.

People started heading down between 7 and 7:30, and there was champagne and hors d'oeuvres like CRAZY!!  They had tons of different foods to try, and they were ALL delicious.  (Debi was thinking of me and made a point of finding out which things would have nuts through the course of the night and gave me a heads up early on--thanks, Debi!)

After an hour and a half or so, Nicolas and Debi went out, we asked everyone to take their seats (well...her French-speaking friends asked them!), and the happy couple made their grand entrance!  

The first course was served and it was UNBELIEVABLE.  I've never had foie gras before, but it was divine.  We ate and chatted with the people at our tables for an hour or so, and then the second course was served--equally exquisite.  The fish was one of the most delicious things I've ever tasted.  

After another hour or so, they dimmed the lights and Debi had her dance with her daddy, followed by the first dance as a married lady with her handsome hubby.  It was beautiful!  Nico hadn't wanted to have dancing at the wedding at all, but he spun her around the floor like a pro, singing and grinning ear-to-ear the entire time.  It was an awesome sight.

We danced for 45 minutes or so and had a fantastic time!  Everyone was having a BLAST, and they did a great job of mixing French and American music and finding things that everyone could dance to and it was clear everyone was having a blast.  (An interesting thing about Europe is that the popular music over there tends to be whatever was popular in the US 10-15 years ago--which means that EVERYONE knows the words and can sing along in English to Michael Jackson, Madonna, etc., even if they don't speak a word of English and have no idea what they're actually singing about.)  

After a good amount of dancing, everyone went back to their tables for the 3rd course.  (If you're keeping track, by now it was about 1 AM.)  It was veal, and the veal was exceptional.  The third course was followed by dancing, with a fourth course of French breads and cheeses served during the dancing (the French take their cheese seriously!).  Somewhere around 3 AM the cake was served, and it was an occasion!  

They had four tiers of cakes, 2 chocolate tortes, and 2 scrumptious pear tortes, and when they were served, they played the "Rocky" theme and the tortes were topped with FIREWORKS--no joke.  They had sparklers lit atop their cakes.  Talk about a night to remember!!  They also had the traditional French creme-puff tower and they successfully ate (and kissed over) their creme-puff (which apparently means they'll have a sucessful marriage?).  

The cakes were followed by (what else?!) more dancing!  Around 3:30 AM people starting bowing out and heading to bed--understandably.  Many of us were starting to feel the length of the day, especially Debi.  Unfortunately her husband was NOT one of them!!

Nicolas had been sick for a few weeks prior to the wedding and had missed all his friends' attempts at a bachelor party, so even though he hadn't wanted dancing, he literally couldn't be drug off the floor!  Debi told him she wanted to go to bed, and he was having such a grand time he didn't want to leave!  After several attempts by Nicolas to convince her to dance a little longer, he finally came around to the idea that when your beautiful wife asks you to go to bed on your wedding night, YOU LISTEN!!  They headed off to bed, and several minutes later most of us followed suit.

It was a glorious, fun night full of laughter, food, excitement, dancing, and love, and bed was welcomed at the end of a long day.  Time to get some sleep, for the next day I would head out on the rest of my European adventure...