Wednesday 13 June 2012

Mairie du XIVe Arrondissement, Paris


Mairie du XIVe Arrondissement, Paris located in the Place de Montrouge. Lowry and Jan posted their banns of their forthcoming wedding here on 31st December 1933; "It had snowed and is still snowing still... a harbinger of good." and "I had to dissuade Malcolm from removing the yellow affiche and bearing it reverently away." (Jan Gabrial Inside The Volcano Pg. 41).

Jan and Lowry were married at the Mairie du XIVe Arrondissement on 6th January 1934 at 10.00am.

Nervously holding hands for reassurance, we set off to collect our witnesses and after a round of brandies to steady everybody, arrived at the gaunt and ugly mairie of the 14th Arrondisment. (It is now, by the way, quite a lovely building.) Directed to a small drab room containing fading portraits of some former mayors, we found a motley collection of the affianced already there......The Salle de Marriage across the hall was large, ornate, and imitation gothic. Its carved pews had been stained walnut and at the front four thronelike chairs faced a dais and mayoral bench........"Look at the murals," she whispered then, indicating the panels in the style of Puvis de Chavannes, each one a hymn to domesticity and motherhood. (Jan Gabrial Inside The Volcano Pg. 47-48)


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