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Bonjour,
I hope that you and yours are well.
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Did you know that the first recorded Valentine’s Day card was allegedly sent from a French duke in 1415? Charles, Duke of Orleans, was imprisoned for 25 years in the Tower of London after being captured in the battle of Agincourt (very close to where I live in northern France) by the English, and wrote to his wife Bonne of Armagnac, “I am already sick for love my very gentle Valentine.” In old French: Je suis desja d’amour tanné ma tres doulce Valentinée.
Romance is revered in France and there are loads of super romantic places. In Paris there’s a 40 square metre art installation called Le mur des je t’aime – the I love you Wall. On it is written in more than 250 languages “I love you” and it has become a rendezvous for lovers. And despite the best efforts of the authorities, people continue to put engraved lovelocks on bridges and railings in the city of love. In Annecy, Haute-Savoie, there is a Pont des Amours, Lovers Bridge, and it’s said that if two lovers meet in the middle of the bridge and kiss, they will stay together for ever.
Valentine’s Day events go on all over the place – in Strasbourg they have a 10-day celebration of love at the Strasbourg Mon Amour festival. In Roquemaure, in the Gard region, southern France, on Valentine’s Day they have La Festo de Poutoun, or the Festival of Kisses, the world’s first and so far only kissing festival, which also celebrates the arrival of the relics of Saint Valentine in the town in 1868. And in the village of Saint Valentine in the heart of the Loire Valley, the self-proclaimed “village of love” is decorated with red roses and couples swear never-ending love by the Tree of Eternal Hearts.
This week I celebrated 25 years of marriage to the love of my life. He arrived one Saturday afternoon to fix my car (he was a mechanic and his number was the first one I saw in my local newspaper advert section!). I had no money for luxuries and I’d bought the very old car for next to nothing – and it broke down on my first drive. Mark knocked at my door, I opened it, our eyes met and we felt, as the French say, a coup de foudre, literally a thunderbolt, or love at first sight! We’ve been together ever since (though he never did fix my car, it was beyond help)!
Wishing you a very bon weekend, Happy Valentine’s Day from France
Bisous,
Janine,
Editor
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