Click on this rather unpromising looking image and it will take you to the British Pathé website and a video of some rather random images of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor's wedding day. You will see French gendarmes strolling about, cameramen lurking in the shrubbery desperate for any glimpse of activity at the chateau, journalists along the roadside waiting for the action to start and scenes of Monts as it was between the Wars. Briefly, at last, you get to see Wallis and Edward and their hosts Fern and Charles Bedaux and the crowd of locals waving the happy couple off. There is no sound track, it's 8 minutes and 20 seconds long.
Of course, all this media and public attention was nothing compared to what the Duke and Duchess would have excited had they got married where they had wanted to, where most of their glamorous friends lived (or at least, played), on the Riviera. However, apparently George VI put his foot down. It was bad enough that his selfish irresponsible brother had abdicated his responsibilities to marry a twice divorced gold digging commoner, but to have the wedding turn into a media feeding frenzy on the fashionable streets of the Riviera was too much. The wedding must take place somewhere out of the way and unknown.
Luckily for them, their acquaintances the Bedaux owned the ideal place, hidden away in the hopelessly rural profundity of the Touraine Loire Valley.
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Cheese Fair: The annual Foire aux Fromages will be held Saturday 7 and Sunday 8 June in Sainte Maure de Touraine.
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French Expression: Moi non plus = me neither; moi aussi = me too.
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