Today marks the thirty-first birthday of Prince Guillaume, The Hereditary Grand Duke of Luxembourg. And that comes just a few weeks after his marriage to Countess Stéphanie de Lannoy. The Bugle celebrates His Royal Highness’s birth to Grand Duke Henri and Grand Duchess Maria Teresa by posting a few photos from Guillaume and Stéphanie’s wedding spectacle on October 20th.
The royal wedding of the year was sedate compared to that other royal wedding, last year. Still, it was a big deal in Luxembourg. The joke of the month was that our invitations must have been lost in the mail — until we learned that two of our friends were, in fact, invited to attend the religious marriage ceremony. (That was the most important event, with all the royal guests and live coverage by television networks all over the world.) Anita and I weren’t able to get away from work to make it to the civil ceremony by Mayor Bettel the day before. But several friends said that one could get a surprisingly close view of the extended royal family.
We chose to attend the public celebration, featuring fireworks from the Red Bridge! On the way there, we noted that the Place d’Armes was decked out for the occasion.
We chose a new spot for fireworks-watching, in one of the oldest parts of the city. We arrived a little late and had a partial view of the sky.
Anita scurried downhill to a better vantage point.
The fireworks were on-par with National Day.
The typically-deserted plaza in front of the Palace was completely full.
We arrived in the Kneudler, the main square, just in time to see Selah Sue start her set by greeting the crowd in several different languages. While her songs were mostly in French, she chatted with the crowd mostly in English.
To end the evening, we visited the same red carpet upon which many royalty had trod just hours before.
Anita took her turn on the carpet, featuring her commemorative flag!
Was this for arriving royals, or just the press? I’m beginning to think that I should have ditched work and watched the whole thing.
2 Comments to “Gebuertsdag vum Ierfgroussherzog Guillaume”
12 November 2012
hi!
invited guests were driven to church by mini-bus (all nice new green mini-buses from sales-lentz with the grand-ducal crest on it) and delivered right to the beginning of the red carpet. so i’m assuming that the structure on place de la constitution was used by the press (probably a TV camera). photographers were posted along the right side of the red carpet, with the military honorary guard (including band and flag) were on the left side.
and not only your two friends got lucky, also one of your neighbors in rue de bragance. entrance into the church was deviated via the courtyard of the national archives and that was filled with commoners, who had a great view of everybody entering church.
greetings across the park,
-mike
19 November 2012
Thanks, Mike! I saw the mini-buses going up and down Avenue Guillaume all day. They were snazzy, indeed.