Japanese Weddings in Paris

The Japanese in Paris

Many people in the world hold a special fascination of Paris and none more so than the Japanese. Anytime of the year there are Japanese tourists visiting the grand monuments and more touristic areas of Paris. It is amusing to see how they pose and take photos of each other. They are much more skilled and posing than the Americans who seem to stand with stone-like grins.

Japanese Restaurants

Japanese restaurants are replacing Chinese restaurants as Parisian favorites. Last year I witnessed the transformation of a Chinese restaurant along the Boulevard du Montparnasse into a sleek modern sushi restaurant. The old stone Chinese dragons remained on the sidewalk for two months before disappearing. A French friend swears that to stay competitive, the Chinese owners learn Japanese cuisine and re-make their restaurant into Japanese, the Chinese serving Japanese, but I have not seen this. The Japanese restaurants are really Japanese.

The Parisian Wedding

The highest form of Japanese love of Paris is the Parisian wedding. As I understand, the formal Japanese wedding is held in Japan and then the entire wedding party is transported to Paris for another celebration and especially for photographs. It is common to see the wedding party in Parisian parks and near Parisian monuments.

Here is a wedding photograph (perhaps not Japonese this time ?) in front of the barracades of the Louvre.