Nutty Nuptials

While walking back to Ninja M's place this afternoon - we spent the morning trekking through the North Africa and graffiti neighborhoods, stopping for a seafood paella lunch purchased haphazardly from a street market and later for Badoit* at La Caravelle - a wedding procession rocketed past us. A wedding procession in Marseille consists of a train of tiny beat-up cars strewn with package-wrapping ribbons. Friends and family spill out of the windows as they continuously honk their horns and flash their hazards. The two prettiest girls in each car** earn the privilege of sitting up on the window ledge of the back doors and holding a flag or banner between them over the top of the car. Typically these are Armenian flags and the car also blasts Middle Eastern music.

I'll probably come off as snobby for finding these processions annoying and tasteless rather than romantic. When I mentioned my views on the party to Ninja M, PL, and KT, Ninja M responded, "Everyone's getting married this weekend."

Nonplussed at the lack of real response to my observation but too curious to conduct the conversation train back to its track, I asked, "Like who?"

"Everyone," KT confirmed.

The three of them then dived directly into a discussion of the best bus routes to take if one were attempting to reach a tourist location in California from Ninja M's home in L.A. Tangents like these are only one of a number of subjects I cannot discourse about with them. Most of the others involve French.

I stewed on my state of pomposity and wondered if I was jaded or just cultivated. A few weekends ago I went to the beach in South Georgia with JS and RC and watched a Mexican wedding that took place with all participants and guests wading waist-deep in the ocean. After the groom kissed the bride the priest dunked her. I liked it. I thought it seemed like a sort of baptism. The Marseille affair, though, I just found tacky.

Later Ninja M said, "When I get married I want to go off in a nice old antique car."

He invited his on-again, off-again girlfriend to sit on the coast of Marseille with us. As KT, PL and I sunned in our bikinis waiting for her to show up, we decided on the most cutting and icy lines I could deliver to her. Ninja M acted unimpressed and disappointed in our plots, but I think he secretly enjoyed our cattiness. When I suggested we dunk her in the frigid ocean water and pretend it was an accident, he just grinned and said, "No."


*A brand of sparkling water
**Each car usually contains 7 people, which is at least 3 more than they are made to hold. They pile in more effectively than clowns.