After breakfast in the hotel in Caen, we started on the drive to the wedding venue. We had to get to the AirBnB before 4:30, because Marc and Joëlle needed to pick up Joëlle’s sister at the Paris airport, about twenty minutes from where we will stay.

Of course, we explored on the way. Beuvron-en-Auge is one of the designated “Les Plus Beau Villages de France,” rural communities of at least 2000 residents featuring at least two protected national heritage sites. Villages who want tourism work hard to get onto this list.

Then off to Verderonne. The AirBnB where we stayed for the next five nights was an old rectory with a converted stable. The beautiful garden provided much of our breakfasts and dinners. The first dinner was a complex, vegetarian delight. We stayed in the upper floors of the stable, perhaps formerly the hayloft? which was converted into a spacious studio apartment.

Ten other guests of the wedding were staying here as well, in the larger separate building. At dinner, we met two of the witnesses for the wedding, Cindy, Aurélie’s best friend since childhood, and Nono, Simon’s friend from Belgium, who he met gaming on the internet 13 years ago. Cindy’s mom and sister were there as well. Her mom, Irene, is Aurélie’s godmother.

The owners of the AirBnB tied flowers to the napkins on the tables every time we ate there, adding beauty and a topic of conversation.

• Iceland and France