French woman marries her dead fiancé

Yes you read the headline correctly.

Out of France this past weekend comes the touching if somewhat unusual story of Magali Jaskiewicz and Jonathan Goerge.

The couple were married on Saturday afternoon in the village of Dommary-Baroncourt in the départment of in north-eastern France.

Nothing extraordinary in that perhaps except that after Jaskiewicz said "I do" in front of the mayor, Jonathan Goerge didn't - or rather couldn't.

He died last November in a road accident two months before the pair were due to wed.

Such a so-called "posthumous marriage" might be rare but it does happen from time-to-time and there are a dozen-or-so such weddings in France every year.

French law allows them to take place only if one of the future couple dies after all the official formalities have been completed to an extent that show "unequivocally the intention of both to marry."

The final decision as whether to grant permission for a posthumous marriage is at the discretion of the French president, and after all the necessary documents had been filed earlier this year, Nicolas Sarkozy finally gave his accord in September.

"Magali's case to marry posthumously was a strong one," said the mayor, Christophe Caput, who oversaw the ceremony and had been instrumental in assembling all the information necessary to be sent to Paris for official approval.

"They had been living together for several years, had two children and the wedding had already been arranged and the dress bought."

Not surprisingly perhaps the weekend's ceremony wasn't exactly a festive occasion, least of all for the bride.

"I'm not really in the mood for celebrating," she said afterwards.

"We'll go and drink a coffee and then I'll thank everyone who has supported me," she added, saying that she would also be putting the wedding bouquet on the grave of her husband.