Chinese couples in France
© AFP Alain Jocard TOURS, France (AFP) - Dressed in frilly white dresses, smiling brides held hands with grooms in dark grey suits during a wedding ceremony Friday in an opulent room of Tours city hall, in France's Loire valley.
The city draws scores of Chinese tourists by offering a "romantic wedding" tour package, complete with ceremony, photo session and honeymoon, in a bid to tap into the Chinese tourism boom.
"This is a dream come true," said Jin Zhu Li, 27, from Tianjin, one of the 40 brides who got married on Friday.
"When I was little I saw a film on television on French romance and Paris and I always wanted to travel to France, to experience such a moment."
In all, some 140 Chinese couples have exchanged vows during five such ceremonies organised in Tours over the past year.
French mayor celebrating the wedding ceremony for 40 Chinese couples
© AFP Alain Jocard"This ceremony is very different from the one in China and very emotional," said Ya Kin Li, a 23-year-old personnel manager who came to Tours with her new husband Han Bin Wang, a 25-year-old chemical engineer.
After a makeup and hair session at a local Tours salon, the Chinese brides join their grooms for the 30-minute ceremony led by Mayor Jean Germain in a high-ceilinged room with red velvet chairs, crystal chandeliers and music.
They exchange vows and rings before the groom is told he "may now kiss the bride", just as five trumpet players start blowing their own rendition of "Yesterday" from the Beatles.
The couples receive a marriage certificate before they are whisked away for photos in front of city hall, which lies on the banks of the Loire river and in the town's historic old quarter.
A fleet of vintage cars is on hand to carry them from one site to the other.
During their stay, the newlyweds will also indulge in shopping, visit a vineyard or tour one of the regions' chateaux before travelling on to Paris, Switzerland or Italy for a nine-day honeymoon.
Newly-wed young Chinese couples in Tours
© AFP Alain JocardEach couple paid more than 3,000 euros (4,000 dollars) for the trip and the teachers, civil servants and engineers, who earn on average 300 euros per month, said they saved and got help from their families to pay.
For mayor Germain, the wedding packages have been a success and offer his city a toehold into the massive market for tourism from China, where members of the burgeoning middle class are becoming avid travellers.
"These ceremonies are a way of being known in China at a time when tourism is expanding and to promote tourism in the Touraine region," said Germain.
The French wedding costs the city 10,000 euros and is organised jointly with youth organisations in the Chinese cities of Tianjin and Shanghai.
©AFP