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Costumed Bride-to-be

One day we were sitting on the steps of the Opera Garnier, the famous 19th century building in the heart of Paris. The midsummer evening was still bright as day, but the crowds on the street were all on their way to some Friday evening entertainment. Not everybody, however. Finally it dawned on us that we were seeing something unusual:

We noticed that the cleaning lady in sunglasses at right was not all that she seemed. After watching a while we, like many others in the crowd, were approached by her: Would we like to buy a roll of toilet paper? At the bargain price of 1F we accepted, realizing that some sort of gag was going on.

Later we asked the woman in the white dress (below) and learned that this was part of the harassment of a bride-to-be. In Paris, and we guess, the rest of France, the friends of the bride or groom dress up the victim and parade him/her through the streets or require some equally humiliating exercise.

A few weeks later (no photo) we saw a fellow dressed up as a woman. He could have been quite a Burlesque queen. On Agust 21 while buying some "Paris" t-shirts we saw a fellow being paraded by. He carried a crudely letted sign saying "I'm to be married" and wore underpants with red ribbons without pants over them. We got a photo, which will be added here when developed and scanned.

The Hens

Coincidentally, the tourist bus that is behind the harassers is for "Paris Vision", the company that has employed Veronica O'Connor (our landlady) for 30 years.