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Seventeen Parsons family members flew across the Atlantic into Nice airport to attend the wedding events of Molly Parsons and Alexandre de Villiers de La Noue in Antibes, France, in the French Riveria.
A private, intimate Parsons family party of 22 was held on June 7 in the Hotel Belles Rives, Antibes Juan les Pins, in honor of Molly and Alexandre, in the hotel’s historic Piano Bar Fitzgerald overlooking the Mediterranean with the Lerins Islands and Esterel mountains as a backdrop.
For the first time Parsons family members delighted in meeting the groom, and Alexandre’s parents, Renaud and Elizabeth de Villiers de La Noue of Paris and Grasse, France, according to Lexington resident Ruth Parsons.
Elizabeth was an American businesswoman from the United States and traversed across the Atlantic to Paris to work and there she would meet Renaud, marry, and have three children. She said, “Our Alexandre (son) was destined to leave his native Paris, attend Lehigh University and MIT, and meet Molly Parsons in New York City.”
F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote his masterpiece “Tender is the Night” in the Villa St Louis which became Hotel Belles Rives in 1929. The hotel has been owned by generations of the same family. In 2001, Madame Marianne Estene-Chauvin buys out other family members and becomes the sole owner.
Cloe Colairo, assistante commerical and communications of Hotel Belles Rives, corresponded with Ruth Parsons of for a year to arrange the signature drinks, apertures, canapés and French pastries. An easel greeted the guests with Molly and Alexandre’s engagement photo taken in Nantucket. Samuel Parsons, brother of the bride, wore his 1999 Parsons Family Golf Open hat, which tickled everyone. Molly’s grandparents, Christa and Lothar, from Germany, were also in attendance at the party.
The Parsons family and de La Noue’s gathered for a family photo around the grand piano in the historic setting of the Fitzgerald Piano Bar which is adorned with art deco and a photographic essay of the literary Fitzgerald prize winners and their books in a glass showcase.
Producer Quentin Tarrantino was awarded the 2023 literary prize for his second book, “Cinema Speculation,” on Friday, June 9, at the hotel by Madame Chauvin and juried members. Each year the hotel hosts the Prix Fitzgerald, which honors a novel or short story that reflects the elegance, spirit and art of living embodied by the American writer and adopted son of the French Riveria, Francis Scott Fitzgerald.
The next morning after Tarrantino received his literary book award, he sat on the hotel terrace at breakfast next to Ruth Parsons and another hotel guest from New York City. Ruth shared with him that Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise had come to her hometown of Lexington to shoot the movie “War of the Worlds.”
As part of the weeklong wedding events, the family enjoyed a boat party - 42 of the 150 wedding guests, in five boats - snorkeling and swimming in the Mediterranean; a wedding welcome party at a private residence villa on the Avenue des Martyrs de la Resistance in Antibes; and the wedding itself on Saturday, June 10, at the Bastide du Roy (given to Henry IV as a wedding present in 1608) in Antibes. The couple was married in the garden, followed by a cocktail reception around the aqua pool with French saxophone music, four-course dinner, speeches, and dancing until 3 a.m.
The father of the bride, Dr. George (Russ) Parsons of Delaware, delivered a 40-minute speech of childhood and contemporary memories of Molly and Alexandre. He described how Alexandre asked him for the blessing of the marriage before the wedding dinner was served, while his wife Christina Parsons cheered him on. Dr. Parsons, a professor of marine science and policy and economics at University of Delaware, thought when Alexandre asked to see him that Alexandre was going to want to talk economics. Then, he realized that he was going to talk about something more serious as marrying his daughter Molly.
“The special family time and wedding celebration in France with Molly and Alexandre will always be cherished by the Parsons family members,” said Ruth Parsons. “Guests flew from all over the world to attend this momentous occasion.”
