Brigitte and Emmanuel Macron and Les Bleus on Monday at l’Elysée

Everything always happens at the same time and Bastille Day week end was a busy one for the whole world. The French had the military parade of July 14, the Brits had Wimbledon in the heat with the longest match ever in six hours and thirty five minutes between Kevin Anderson and John Isner in the semi finals, and Nadal and Djokovic playing over two days in five hours and fifteen minutes! while Serena Williams was being beaten by  German player Angelique Kerber. But I was invited to the most charming and fun wedding ever.

John Isner and Kevin Anderson at Wimbledon on Friday 13

Instead of watching the games, I concentrated on the battlefield of Hastings in Battle, East Sussex where the Norman William the Conqueror defeated the Saxon king Harold in 1066.

Saam Idelji-Tehrani and Blanche Fitzgerald tie the knot

It was a great way to celebrate the 14 th of July  in style and this was just the hors d’oeuvre for the most charming and bucolic wedding of the year, between Blanche Fitzgerald an art historian and Saam Idelji-Tehrani, a brilliant psychiatrist. The weather was perfect, the venue, the family home of Lord Longford, was idyllic. I tested again the fact that the Brits dress very unconventionally for weddings (a mix of morning coats and no tie suits) and everyone was happy and beautiful. Including Lady Antonia Fraser, the bride’s grand mother, who was surrounded by five of her six children, many grandchildren and her great grand daughter! The speeches by Edward Fitzgerald Q.C. and the groom were hilarious and Rebecca Fraser, whose book on the Mayflower is a best seller in the US was enjoying the scene. As was Nigella Lawson, the godmother of the bride.  Champagne and Brouilly were on the menu with a perfect sunset on the fields.

The groom with his two ravishing sisters in law, Honor and Atalanta Fitzgerald

I drove back through the Tunnel with the feeling of having lived fully this Bastille day week end and happy with the outcome of the World Cup. In Glyndebourne, Christophe Dumaux the fabulous counter tenor in “Giulio Cesare”, took his curtain call covered in blood from the death scene, and waving a French flag for the victory! What an elegant gesture from music lovers to football players. But all these emotions were exhausting!