A Brief History of my Family in France - Part 19 - My Parents Got Married
Hello everyone. This is the continuation of the story of my French family.
The story starts here
Previous episode: Part 18
My Parents Got Married
Paul and Marie knew each other before World War II, as their two families were neighbors in Le Chesnay. Both families were living "rue Saint-Joseph", Paul at number 44 and Marie at number 39.
Paul and his brothers and Marie's brothers were going to the same private catholic school.
Paul has been a cub scout leader and one of his cub had been Pierre, Marie's brother (born in 1925, number 5 out of 10 children).
When Marie's family came back from Tunis in July 1942, Henri, my grandfather, found an apartment to rent in the 16th arrondissement, avenue de Camoëns.
A View of the Building avenue de Camoëns
(source: Google Maps, Street View)
In 1945, Paul learned that his cub scout Pierre had died in December 1944 in the concentration camp of Dora, he started to visit regularly my grandparents in Paris.
As Marie was living with her parents, Paul and Marie were also getting reacquainted.
And without telling Marie before, during one of these visits, Paul asked Marie's parents for the hand of their daughter.
When her parents told Marie about Paul's request, her first reaction was:
- Oh! Quelle tuile!
that translates roughly to:
- Oh! Bummer!
However, after this initial reaction, Henri and Annick told their daughter Marie to think about it.
Obviously, Marie decided to accept the proposal, otherwise I would not be here to talk about it.
And that is how Paul and Marie got married in July 1946.
From what I was told, this was a simple affair, as the French economy had not yet recovered from the war and there were many post-war food restrictions.
Continue to Part 20
If you like this story, please consider to follow me @vcelier
Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4
Part 5 - Part 6 - Part 7 - Part 8
Part 9 - Part 10 - Part 11 - Part 12
Part 13 - Part 14 - Part 15 - Part 16
Part 17 - Part 18
.
great to read, i will read the other parts too. was once in paris, i love the city. but i prefer germany to live. french is a lovely language ,wich i like to speak much. the nuance makes it, cheers:)
Thank you.
@vcelier so Marie is your mom?
that's why you forbid her to slumber :)
I can't wait for the next one!
It's getting more interesting, I guess because it's your family's real story
no bits on how they courted each other?
I wonder how they wooed women back then - or was there ever a wooing thing back then? I used to sit and listen to my granny's story about how their time was - your story just brought me beautiful flash backs with her.
Not many people seem to know about their parents and their family's story these days. Sometimes, I asked the people around me - how did your parents meet - dunno dont' care they answer.
I miss the old days, my grandparents, aunts and uncle on my father's side and my parents themselves each told me about their love stories and past lives, I find those very interesting because when I existed - the world around me looked very different from what they were describing.
So, I can't wait to hear more cause this is in France - old fashioned life style being written here :)
Thank you for sharing them to us!
Thank you.
Yes, Marie is my mother and Paul is my father.
@vcelier I see.
When is the next one coming - I checked and this is empty.
I'll check again tomorrow.
Im soon off to bed - almost 1 am here :)
Maybe tomorrow, otherwise the next day.
It is 4 PM here now.
@vcelier okay I'd come back again hahaha
have a great day!
"Oh! Quelle tuile!" A bit of a bumpy start :))))))