Tips & Tricks for a Lovely Wedding at Chateau de Bouelles 

We hope these tips and tricks make your stay in France smooth and delightful. 

Quick essentials
Where: Chateau de Bouelles
When: 24 September — Ceremony around 5 PM 

Open toasts

This is neither a tip nor a trick but it’s important so it goes first. 
We invite anyone who wishes to make a toast at the wedding dinner to make a toast at the wedding dinner. We love this kind of thing. Heart. Humor. Toasts of all shapes and sizes encouraged!
Not this kind of toast: 

Getting around 

You can find/give rides in our ride share sheet. Might be a good idea to check here first before doing anything drastic like renting your own car. Share rides and you can make new friends/reduce carbon!  
On the road there will likely be tolls. The one with a card image lets you pay by card, but they only take MasterCard and it has to be tappable. If you have euros, you can go to the cash one. Don’t go to the one marked “T”  

…The T stands for Terrible Things.  
You might get on a road that seems way too narrow, and think, ’how could two cars possibly pass each other on this road?’…but this happens in France. People pull to the shoulder to let other people pass. It works out without incident. Mostly. But yeah. Narrow roads — they’re out there! 
Speed is tracked by radar in France. They put up warning signs that look like this: 

…So if you see one of those, they’re checking. Some cars beep when it happens.  
If you’re looking for a ride back to town from the chateau, here are some taxis to call:
Hep Taxi — +33 6 71 31 87 08
Taxi David — +33 6 77 67 43 06
Taxi Patrick et Corrine — +33 6 09 33 94 28

Paying for stuff 

Good idea to keep some cash on you, especially for small purveyors like bakeries and cheesemongers, who’ll be less likely to take cards. 
If you’re using cards, not many places take Amex; MasterCard or Visa preferred. 
The tappable cards work best. Oh, but sometimes if a purchase is over a certain amount, tapping doesn’t work — you’ll need to know your PIN. 
Might be a good idea to check if your card charges you a foreign transaction fee.   

Clothing 

For the wedding day, bring formalwear or much-less-formalwear — whatever makes you feel beautiful/elegant/empowered/kissable/elevated.
Bring warm layers and less-warm layers — September in Normandy can be 75 and sunny during the day and drop to the 50s at night.
Bring a bathing suit. There’s a pool at the chateau.

Phones & tech 

Wifi at the chateau is localized to the ground floor. We haven’t run any speed tests… but can’t imagine it’s very fast. 
If you want to use your phone but don’t want to pay crazy American roaming rates, you can get a European SIM. Orange offers this. Vodaphone too. Depends on how long you’re bopping around Europe pre- or post-wedding…  
Going phoneless would work out fine, too. Who needs a phone?   
But if you are using your phone you might have to press “+33” if you’re trying to call a French person. The “+” thing can be tricky. On an iPhone you have to PRESS AND HOLD the “0” on your keypad. 
You may be better off using WhatsApp. Europeans love it. 

Eating at the chateau 

Dinner is covered for Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. But what about all those other meals?  
Well, we want to keep things casual. Do quick runs for bready things in the morning. Mess around in the kitchen/at the barbecue for lunches. Snack on cheese and charcuterie. 
This will require some grocery running. Again, let’s just handle this is in a low-tech way (make lists on pieces of paper) and figure it out together. 
That said, we’ll be stocking the kitchen with some essentials before you get here, so if there’s something you really need in advance, send us an email and let us know.

French people

…Really appreciate it if you try to speak a lil French. Give it a whirl! 
When kissing a new French friend on the cheek (it happens) bear left. See Ben or Lyuda for a demonstration.