Chateau d'Esclimont will play host to Georgina Ahern's wedding party - and casual snaps are not allowed. Lara Marlowe visits the scene.
A 19th-century owner of the Château d'Esclimont seemed to have Georgina Ahern and Nicky Byrne in mind when he asked that the words "C'est mon plaisir" ("It is my pleasure") be carved in large letters on the balcony overlooking the magnificent gardens of his castle.
Between now and next Saturday, a marquee will be raised on the lawn, where 400 wedding guests will celebrate the nuptials of Ahern and Byrne, both aged 24. The Taoiseach's daughter has kept a low profile, and recently completed business school. As a member of the Westlife band, Byrne is far more of a celebrity. Westlife have had 11 No 1 singles in Britain - more than the Rolling Stones, Abba or Madonna.
It was partly to avoid fans that the couple chose this region 60 kilometres south of Paris for their wedding. Westlife are virtually unknown here, their wedding co-ordinator, Joanne Byrne of Presence PR, admits. "That's one of the reasons they so love France," she says. "In France, they're pretty much left to their own devices."
Next Saturday's wedding has been described as "the most spectacular Irish showbiz wedding ever". The overnight extravaganza in the Château d'Esclimont will cost about €1 million. But the enterprising couple got Joanne Byrne to negotiate a deal with Hello! magazine, which purchased exclusive rights to all information pertaining to, and photographs coming from, the wedding for close to €1 million.
"Nicky has said to me right from the beginning that they wanted to give their family and friends a magical time," Joanne Byrne says. "They're in a lucky position because he's in one of the biggest boybands in the world and they're able to do it. When he had nothing and she was a student on the bus to college every day, this is the kind of wedding they dreamed of. Dreams do come true."
She says the couple have been hurt by criticism that they should have married in Ireland. "Posh and Becks had their dream wedding. Victoria always wanted to get married in an Irish castle. Nobody gave out that they left England. A wedding is a day when you should be entitled to do whatever you want to."
Furthermore, Joanne Byrne insists, "it's simply a large Irish family wedding that happens to be taking place in France". Irish elements of the wedding include more than 30 kilos of Dunn's smoked salmon flown from Dublin and the serving of Guinness, Jameson and Boru Vodka. Both the bride and groom "have been very conscious of choosing Irish designers", Byrne adds. Ahern's €110,000 wedding gown and ball dress were made by Synan O'Mahony from Limerick. O'Mahony has also made the dresses for Georgina's maid of honour, her sister Cecelia, and four other bridesmaids. The groom, his best man and four groomsmen are being dressed by Tyrell Brennan.
The couple are to be married by an Irish priest, a family friend whose name Joanne Byrne would not reveal.
There's an almost Irish resonance to the history of this corner of the Beauce plateau. It went back and forth between French and English hands during the 100 Years War, and was ravaged by wars between Catholics and Protestants. Gallardon, where the wedding Mass will take place, was liberated from the Germans on August 16th, 1944.
But Hello! will probably not be interested in this history. The magazine's contract with the bride and groom has transformed the most banal details - the guest-list, the dinner menu, the colour of the bridesmaids' dresses, the type of flowers, the honeymoon location and even the priest's identity - into closely guarded secrets.
Guests include other members of Westlife, former Boyzone star Ronan Keating and his wife, Yvonne (who are neighbours of the wedding couple in the Abington luxury housing development in Co Dublin), Pop Idol's Mr Nasty, Simon Cowell, and soccer stars Jason McAteer and Ian Harte. Nadine Coyle, of Girls Aloud, will sing a hymn in the Church of St Peter and St Paul, 10 kilometres from the château in Gallardon.
"The Taoiseach obviously had to invite 10 or a thousand people," Joanne Byrne says. "His two brothers - one is a councillor and one is a TD - will be attending. Otherwise, there aren't any politicians."
The château's house chef, Olivier Dupart, who trained with Lucas Carton, Alain Sanderens and Joël Robuchon, will prepare the €500 per head wedding meal. Though starting prices for rooms, food and wine are almost reasonable, a bottle of 1993 Romanée-Conti red burgundy goes for €5,922, so it's easy to see how the tab could mount up.
The château is a favourite hideaway for celebrities such as the French rock star, Johnny Halliday, and racing driver Michael Schumacher.
When I telephoned to request a meeting with someone from management, the head of reservations said icily that she would "absolutely not have time" to talk to me for three weeks.
At lunch in the château's splendid 18th-century dining-room, I briefly managed to speak to Laurent Trabalzini, the director. But our chat stopped when I mentioned the Ahern-Byrne wedding.
"As far as I'm concerned, there is an ordinary wedding here next weekend," he said, moving towards the door. "We do not talk about private clients."
Joanne Byrne knew I had rung the château, and was delighted no one would talk to me. "They've signed a confidentiality agreement," she explains. "Every phone call coming in I'm getting word of, because obviously I have to keep track of everybody that's phoning."
She has also mounted a €100,000 security operation, manned by armed Irish security guards. The greatest threat is that a wedding guest would use a mobile phone to snap a picture and transmit it, thereby invalidating the Hello! contract.
"My security team will be extremely vigilant," Byrne said. "Ninety-nine per cent of the people invited are family and close friends. I would believe they would comply with what Nicky and Georgina asked them to do. This was put on the invitation; they were asked not to have things like cameras and video recorders."
It would be easy to lose sight of the romance of the occasion. Ahern and Byrne met at school when they were 13, and have been together since they were 16 - long before he was a pop star or she the Taoiseach's daughter. In the Church of St Peter and St Paul and the Château d'Esclimont, they found the perfect setting to consummate their fairytale.
Walking through the grounds, past the moat and the canal with ducks and rowboats, out to the lake where birds coo and a couple sit embracing, I think of Baudelaire's 'Invitation au voyage', about the sweetness of living where "all is but order and beauty, luxury, calm and sensual pleasure".