When Vincent and Bruno got married, the world didn't end

But maybe it changed a little for the better

France has celebrated its first same-sex marriage.

The eyes of the world - or at least the cameras - were on Montpellier on Wednesday as Vincent Autin and Bruno Boileau exchanged vows and rings in front of the city's mayor, Hélène Mandroux.

Montpellier's mayor Hélène Mandroux with Vincent Autin (right) and Bruno Boileau (screenshot AFPTV)

It was a moving moment to watch and - if you believe in the institution of marriage - seemed such a natural ending to the most normal of love stories (you can read about how they met in this piece from The Guardian).

Yes, those words are chosen deliberately.

It didn't mark the breakdown of French society as we know it, although those opposed to the idea that same-sex couples should have the right to marry will probably continue their reactionary and discriminatory bleating from the sidelines.

Rather it's a sign that French law has caught up with what opinion polls have been saying for the past decade.

And that's progress.

There'll be more evidence of that when two characters from one of the country's most popular daily soap operas "Plus belle la vie" - Thomas Marci (played by actor, Laurent Kérusoré)  Gabriel Riva (Joakim Latzko) tie the knot in an episode due to be screened in a month or so.

And as part of a poster campaign it has just launched in Paris to appeal to a younger public who might be living and working in different European cities, the high-speed train operator Thalys has  included a gay couple.

No, being gay or lesbian is not a trend, a fashion statement or a lifestyle choice as some of those protesting against the right of same-sex couples to marry might have claimed.

And while this week's events might have grabbed the headlines both in France and abroad, it surely also gives rise to the hope that some time very soon people will look back at Vincent and Bruno's marriage and wonder what all the fuss was about.

French opposition UMP party as united as ever in perfect disharmony

Exciting news from France's opposition centre-right Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (Union for a Popular Movement, UMP).

Jean-François Copé and François Fillon have agreed to let members decide on whether to hold another vote for the post of party leader.

Breathe deeply before you read on. Some of what follows will be more than confusing.

The UMP is in a bit of a mess at the moment. Actually it has been for quite a while now.

For example, take its reaction (sorry to have to mention this again) to the anti same-sex marriage "Manif pour tous" march in Paris last weekend.

Among those taking part in the demonstration were the party's president, Jean-François Copé, Henri Guaino - a former speechwriter to Nicolas Sarkozy when he was in office and now a member of parliament in his own right - and Laurent Wauquiez, a former minister and a supporter of Copé's "defeated" challenger for the leadership of the party - François Fillon.

Notable by their absence though were Fillon himself, Alain Juppé - a former minister of just about anything you can think of and the current mayor of Bordeaux, and the party's likely candidate for next year's race to be mayor of Paris, Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet (NKM).

Copé - ever the slick opportunist - was plainly using the demonstration as a means by which to protest against the current government and drum up support for the party in next year's local elections.

While for Guaino, it was clearly a matter of sticking to his principals - even if he had mistakenly voted in favour of the bill to allow same-sex marriage when it passed its final reading in parliament - and he was "proud" to have taken part.

Juppé, who unlike Guiano had managed to hit the right button and say "non" in the final vote - had previously stated he would be a no-show as the law had been passed and it had to be respected.

And NKM, who had abstained in the parliamentary vote, obviously had other more important issues on her mind namely that of the far-right Front National's call  to vote against her when polls open in the UMP's primary to choose its candidate for mayor of Paris.

Phew!

On the subject of "voting" that brings us back neatly to an issue that remains unresolved and illustrates the state of health of the party...the struggle for the leadership.

You thought it was over?

Wrong.

Jean-François Cope and François Fillon (screenshot from i>Télé report)

Remember Copé's glorious "victory" over Fillon in last year's battle when both men declared themselves to have won and how the party split in two for a while after claims of vote-rigging and fraud?

The debacle dragged on for weeks until the two men and their supporters managed to bury the proverbial hatchet (somewhere) and reach some sort of working agreement.

They created an internal structure stuffed to bursting point with vice presidents to represent the two very different directions the party was trying to take at the same time.

Even though Copé perhaps has had the upper hand - after all he's the one who holds the post of party leader - his legitimacy has been questioned, and the issue of whether to hold another vote has never really gone away...until now.

Because on Monday the two men announced a solution which will put an end to divisions within the party and steer it on a true red, white and blue course for the future.

They've agreed to let party members decide whether there should be another vote to choose the party president.

Yes in other words (and sorry, there's no way to make this clear without constant repetition) their recommendation is that party members vote in June on whether they should vote again in December.

Now doesn't that make complete and utter political (non)sense?

Pass the gin.

Christine Boutin's "invasion of gays"

As France "recovers" from the million person march (organisers) or 150,000-strong (official figures) anti same-sex marriage "Manif pour tous" last weekend in Paris, a couple are preparing to wed in Montpellier.

On Wednesday Vincent Autin and Bruno Boileau will become the first "gay grooms to tie the knot" since parliament voted in favour, the Constitutional Council gave its approval and the French president François Hollande signed same-sex marriage into law.

Vincent Autin (right) and Bruno Boileau (screenshot AFPTV report)

Add to that the fact that on the same day as the march, Franco-Tunisian director Abdellatif Kechiche picked up top honours at the Cannes film festival for his "story of a young woman's awakening" in the film "La vie d'Adèle" ("Blue is the warmest colour") and you'll surely understand (?) how it has all become just a little too much for the country's most gay-friendly politician to handle.

We're talking about Christine Boutin of course, the former housing minister and leader of the centre-right Parti chrétien-démocrate (Christian democratic party, PCD) who defends family values and is most definitely not a homophobe.

That must be true because she has repeatedly said so.

Christine Boutin "I'm not a homophobe" (screenshot from TV5Monde, RFI, Le Monde interview)

But somehow it's increasingly hard to believe, especially in light of her outburst on French radio on Monday.

Following on from her recent tasteless tweet about US actress Angelina Jolie's decision to have a double mastectomy to reduce her chances of getting breast cancer, and perhaps still feeling the after-effects (well there has to be some sort of explanation)  of being sprayed with tear gas during a Manif pour tous demonstration in Paris back in March, Boutin revealed that contrary to what she might insist, her views surely more than smack of homophobia.

Invited into the studios of RMC radio and asked to give her reaction to Kechiche's win, Boutin's  gay tolerance fuse blew.

"You can't watch a movie on television or a series without there being gays included and expressing themselves," she said.

"And now it's the Palme d'Or.... We're being invaded. We can no longer have a story without a gay theme occurring. It's too much," she continued.

"Today it seems to be a fashion to be gay. We're being invaded by gays."

Au secours!