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
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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
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