Dear Sophie, dear Frédéric,
All of us gathered here, we thank you for sharing with us what I hope will be one of the most beautiful days of your life.
It is already a small miracle that we are here, because in fact Sophie was practically denied from birth in Grenoble. Let me explain, after our wedding in September 1969, we devoted our honeymoon to furnishing a small apartment then young and carefree, we went in search of a clinic for childbirth, because yes, Geneviève was 3 months pregnant, another miracle of inoculated conception.
At the mutualist clinic, the answer was: giving birth in 6 months, impossible, you have to book 10 months in advance. At the Belledonne clinic: but it’s already too late, no more room, and so on all the doors were closed to us. We were looking for a stable with a donkey and an ox when a friend informed me that there was a small clinic in Grenoble with very few resources, the Clinique des Fleurs, there was still a place for the three of us, phew!
And on March 26, 1970, Massofinaki, for those who don’t understand Japanese, our Sophie was born (Ma-Sophie-naquit). All of Grenoble was informed, what a voice!! When she was hungry or when she had put a present in her diaper, her screams could be heard several kilometers away, she woke up the whole neighborhood and therefore necessarily the whole clinic. For a week, at night, the nurses placed her cradle near the elevator, very far from the rooms.
As a child, Sophie already knew how to keep busy, she had an overflowing imagination, we never heard her say “I’m bored”. With toys, flowers, books etc she was always busy.
She was very early and dynamic, at 9 months she was running and at 10 months she was walking. Then came school: Knowing and learning had become the highest passion. After successfully going through kindergarten, majoring in primary and secondary, she smashed through business school. If we had placed her in a convent, she would certainly have become mother superior.
From her dad she inherited the PIIA gene (Passion for Italy and Italian Art), so my dear Frédéric you are going to undergo travels, visits to museums, architectural sites, endless explanations. Lucky guy!
My dear Frédéric, we are happy today to offer you our treasure, do not put it in a safe in Switzerland, make it prosper, make it flourish, make it shine.
It is an honor for us that you become a member of our family. I think that concerning Sophie, the same feeling is shared in the Védrines family, isn’t it Philippe?
Life is not a long, quiet river. There are pitfalls, unexpected events, dramas sometimes, but it is beautiful when you love each other, when you cultivate the same happiness in the same garden, when you can count on each other, when we listen to each other.
So dear Sophie, dear Frédéric, now that you have made the right choice, we again offer you our congratulations.
And we all have here, the secret hope of finding ourselves together again in the same place for your 50 years of marriage.
Long live the brides!