As a cinematographer I've been given the opportunity to film weddings at some pretty amazing places in addition to our beautiful home base here in Charleston. I've filmed weddings all over the east coast from Maine to Georgia, but France was my first big opportunity to film internationally. I think I literally fell to my knees with excitement the day everything for France was finalized. I remember thinking, "is this really my life?!" A career-defining moment to say the least. The only downside was that I already had other wedding bookings just days after the France wedding (the wedding fell on a Tuesday), so we were forced to make this journey in 3 days...yes, thats right. THREE days (not including travel time). Here's how we did it.
We spent weeks researching all things South of France. To be completely honest, I've never had much interest in seeing Paris, but if I were to choose on my own where in France I'd go, it for sure would be the South. It couldn't have been a more perfect match! The wedding would take place in the dreamy hillsides reminiscent of one of my fave Cary Grant/Grace Kelly flicks "To Catch a Thief." A 1952 Hitchcock classic that is a must-see if you like older films. The venue, Villerouge La Cremade, is a traditional village nestled amidst lush vineyards and is within an easy drive of Carcassonne (where we stayed) and many other lovely medieval towns. The area is rich in history with so much to see with stunning and diverse landscapes, from the foothills of the Pyrenees to beautiful Mediterranean beaches.
Our drive from the airport in Toulouse was a rather scary one. While they don't drive on the opposite side of the road in France, they drive like it's the Jersey Pike. One plus I will say is that France has perfected the use of the traffic circle! They were literally everywhere, and unlike in the U.S., people actually knew how to properly maneuver through them. Our drive to Carcassonne was about an hour; an hour spent calming our travel nerves and really digesting the fact that, "Holy crap we're in France!" The French countryside is unbelievably gorgeous. The spinning windmills, the lavender and sunflower fields, the french architecture. We truly felt like we were on the set of a movie.
After about 10 minutes of getting lost amid narrow, winding streets trying to find the private parking lot for our hotel, we'd finally made it. * Cue sigh of relief * Our hotel, Hotel de la Cîte, lies within the walls of a medieval city, therefore no cars are allowed within the walls. The only vehicle allowed in is the mini bus which is the hotel's transport from the private parking area to beyond the walls. Kinda neat! The ride in was a bumpy mess of cringe-worthy turns through narrow paths, parting the sea of tourists with our fossil of a bus. Pictured above from left to right is the exterior view of the ancient city, the middle is the entrance to the hotel and far right is one of the many picturesque surrounding streets.
We checked into the hotel, and although we were walking zombies by this point due to the 6 hour time difference, we were starving so we opted to explore over napping. Gotta rally, baby! Literally 20 yards across the courtyard from our hotel's entrance stood the gorgeous and colossal Basilica of Saint Nazaire. With its French-gothic architecture and beautifully crafted windows, the basilica is a prominent landmark in the medieval cityscape. I'm not a huge fan of black & whites, but I think they best tell the story of this historic gem. On we went, down the many streets in search of food, while the anxiety was setting in for our first "French encounter." Prior to the trip we'd asked several friends who have visited France about the language barrier. Some had no issues, while others experienced difficulties. I had my Google translator ready to go if needed, but we were still both a little nervous due to our lack of the language. We found a cute little Italian restaurant with open seating (yes, of course we're in France and the two Italians opt for Italian..go figure..). Hangry and not in the mood to venture outside of our food comforts, we ordered a large pizza. How American of us, right? But I must say, the pizza was AMAZING as was the wine. A couple of regrets we have, we didn't take any photos of the food or of the wines we loved. When in France for a mere 72 hours, you really have limited brain capacity for remembering to do everything you'd hoped. Oh well, maybe next time!
We called it an early night as we were exhausted and I had to be well rested before shooting the wedding on the following day. My favorite part of the trip was actually my drive from Carcassonne to the wedding at Villa Rouge. It was a 45 minute drive through the most beautiful stretch of French countryside. Just before getting to the venue, you drive through the most charming of little villages. Again, I felt like I was on the set of a movie. After getting somewhat lost, yet again, (navigating French addresses was a real trip, y'all!) I'd finally made it to my destination. Upon arrival I met the venue owner who was also the wedding coordinator, Katarina. Her and her husband Jonathan own this gorgeous property which they use for both vacation rentals as well as events. The villas sit atop a hill looking down onto the beautiful event space and vineyards. Villa Rouge is a luxury 19th century Mediterranean villa uniquely decorated in true Moorish and Catalonian Mediterranean style. I wanted to unpack my bags and never leave. For real, though. I entered the villas to the warmest of welcomes from the bride and grooms' families before heading up to the bride, Léan's suite. Everyone was so sweet and of course with their beautiful accents made them that much more charming. At that moment I was at ease, relaxed and DTF (down to film, duh!). [Be sure to watch their beautiful, European-style wedding highlight trailer below!]
Without going into too much detail about the wedding (as you can check it out for yourself by watching the video!) the wedding day was absolutely beautiful, the couple was extremely genuine and kind and I couldn't have asked for a better experience. With that being said, France wasn't all sunshine and roses. We had our fair share of hiccups along the way. Referring back to our language barrier fears, we found the customer service in France to be appalling. Once they determined you were American and did not speak the language, attitudes changed quickly. While a majority of those we encountered could speak English, we found many to be rude and short with us when discovering we weren't fluent in their language. Service at restaurants was slow and unfriendly. We literally had to stand up and flag down our waiter just to bring our check after waiting 20-30 minutes for it to come. Wait staff never came to check on you, never asked how the food was or if you needed anything. We've been told it's a 'European thing.' The front desk staff at our hotel was deplorable. Luckily the location made up for this and we tried to avoid conversation at all costs. The day of the wedding it was unusually hot for the area. Working weddings in July & August here in the South I'm accustomed to the never-ending sweating on a wedding day, but it didn't fair well for those not used to the immense heat and humidity. During the wedding the poor officiant fainted mid-ceremony. A very scary couple of minutes. The sweet bride even had to lay down in one of the villas during cocktail hour because she wasn't feeling well. I felt awful but continued to fulfill my obligations and film through the turmoil. The day following the wedding was our one FULL day to ourselves to explore as much as we could. We decided to check out the "new city" which was just a few miles outside of the medieval walls. We spent the day wandering the streets, trying local brews, we even found an umbrella-covered street I'd seen on Instagram. A social media WIN. Snap, post, caption, done! The cherry on top of the cake came when we went back to where our car was parked. The panic was real and the cuss words were abundant when we found our entire bumper lying on the ground. Our rental car had clearly been clipped. WTF. Needless to say, this was the final straw and we were SO ready to be back in the good ole U.S. of A. We are so grateful and thankful for the experience and the wedding was storybook quality, but we will never take that short of an international trip ever again. Lesson learned. Note to self. Face palm emoji. Bye. XO
