The traditional wedding re-enactment in a tiny French village.

St Germier is a rural hamlet in the Dept Deux Sevres of south west France. It is so small virtually nothing is recorded about it on the internet, except its geographical position. Which is, apparently; Latitude : 46.00, Longitude : 0.00.

The population can’t be more than a couple of hundred, in fact I doubt it’s even that. St Germier has no facilities; no schools, no shops, no bars, no bus (except the school bus), no Doctor, no Dentist, no Optician, no Pharmacy, no solicitors and no anything else.

The people who live there have to go into the next small town for their most basic needs. The exception being the church, it does have a very pretty little church and outside the church is has its own small war memorial.

There always seems to be flowers or wreaths of some kind at the foot of this war memorial. . It also has its own small fishing lake in the middle of a quite lovely park.

St Germier has its own Mayor (Maires in French) who every one knows and who apparently does a remarkable job of overseeing everything that happens in the village.

If you want anything from planning permission, to advice about how to fit your own fosse ( septic tank) , to what to do about the fox who is taking all your chickens, the first thing you do is make an appointment to see they mayor.Nothing, but nothing happens in the village with out the say so of the mayor.

The Mayor can be seen driving around the village on his own little motor mower cutting back all the grass verges in the village. He doesn’t get paid to do this; he just takes enough money to cover his diesel.

 

 

 

He does this because by not hiring someone to cut grass verges he saves money for the community to spend on other things. His father was mayor before him and his father before him. 

No one ever stands against the mayor in the local elections ( held every six years) because every one is more than happy with the job he does. 

He is almost 80 now and is standing down at the next election. No one quite knows what is going to happen when this mayor leaves office because there is no obvious candidate waiting in the wings (the mayor is childless). Every year there are two village events that every one participates in. 

There is the Mayors dinner where every one gets invited to the village hall to enjoy an evening meal with endless courses and a bottomless barrel of wine and then there is the wedding re-enactment held every August in the village.
The traditional wedding reenactment is planned throughout the year, the whole community joins in, costumes are made and dancing is practiced. 

Every one dresses in traditional costume and congregates in the village park next to the fishing lake. There is a bride and groom, the brides father, a priest, and someone playing the part of the village mayor.

Much of the lace that’s worn is original and has been handed down through the generations. The people gather under the shade of the trees for the first lot of photos and then they walk in procession out of the park and up through the village, they stop in the village square outside the village hall and perform traditional dancing, after the dancing there is another procession into the garden of the village hall where beer is served and a show on a makeshift stage begins.

I was lucky enough to be there for this years wedding and these are just some of the many photos I took. It was so hot that day, (about 35 degrees in the shade) I ended up putting the camera away and standing under the nearest tree. I have no idea how all those people, little children included, managed to dance in those long heavy costumes in that heat, but dance they did. 

I thoroughly enjoyed the whole thing and am so grateful I was there this year to witness it. 
A couple of weeks ago, I went to a tiny little fishing village perched on top of the cliffs about 5 miles along the coast from here. They also had a day of traditional costumes, traditional stories and music from the past and I couldn't help comparing the two events. These two villages are both tiny, both without amenities except the village church and the village hall and they both reenacted their past in story, song and costume. They are in different countries and lie about 800 miles apart and yet there were similarities in costume and tradition. My next post here will be about the day I spent at Auchmithy  and costumes, stories and music from the past.