This past weekend, C & I drove up north to attend his cousin's wedding. I was filled with a bit of trepidation - my previous wedding experiences in Bretagne having been less than a piece of cake. But C's family was absolutely wonderful - nobody stared at me, and for once it was nice to have people be curious to meet me because I was C's girlfriend, and not because I was The Foreigner. Half of the people there didn't even know I was American, and the ones that did spared me from having to answer all the typical questions over and over again, ie "How long have you been here? Why did you come? Are you a student? Etc." In short, I felt like a normal person instead of the foreign outsider. What a frickin' nice change that was. And I'm even more grateful after hearing about a few friends' recent experiences, including Vivi over at Dispatches from France.

I was also happily surprised to see how well-behaved all the children on his side of the family acted. It really was a joy to watch how the children and the parents interacted, from the babies on up to the teenagers. They had such respect for one another and it was obvious they were all close. It was the kind of experience that can actually make one consider starting a family. But those thoughts were quickly quashed by the grooms family. Their children were little hellions, constantly popping balloons, making noise and running amuck. But then again, his side of the family also set off about 100 firecrackers outside the church AND they brought in their country line dance group as a "surprise". They ended up performing for over two hours, which delayed everything, including the meal. We didn't end up eating the cake until almost 3am! It was crazy. We left around 4am, but the party was still going strong. After a short night's sleep, it was time to wake up and head back to Paris. C's brother drove, and I'm sorry to say that the slow driving and incapability to follow a GPS appears to be a family trait. Our 2 hour and 15 minute trip took 4 hours. FOUR HOURS PEOPLE. And we didn't even run into traffic on the way back. How is that even possible? This definitely rules out any future roadtrips with C's family....at least until I magically learn how to drive a stick shift!