Letter from Paris / Lara Marlowe: The wedding couple arrived at the Bègles town hall on Saturday in a chocolate-brown Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow with the words "Just Married" on the licence plate.
Stéphane Charpin (34), a nursing assistant, wore an ivory-coloured trouser-suit and a neckerchief embroidered with roses. Bertrand Charpentier (31), a heavily-built warehouse worker, had his charcoal grey pin-striped suit custom-made for the occasion.
Stéphane wiped away tears when their vows were exchanged. Both trembled as they slipped wedding bands on each other's finger. As he handed the newlyweds their livret de famille (official family record book), the officiating mayor, Noël Mamère, who is also a vociferous green member of the National Assembly, put his face in his hands and cried. "I am very moved," he said. "Today we are making a gesture for tolerance . . . I'm proud to celebrate this marriage."
The two grooms still had pink rice in their hair, were showing off their rings and delighting in saying "my husband" at a reception given by the local green party when the government came down like a hundredweight of bricks on France's first homosexual nuptials.
In Paris the interior minister, Dominique de Villepin, announced he'd ordered the one-month suspension of Mr Mamère from his mayoral duties. When he was foreign minister, Mr de Villepin made an eloquent plea against the invasion of Iraq at the United Nations. Now he's punishing homosexual union.
Mr Mamère has until June 12th to show why he should not be suspended. And Stéphane and Bertrand are in legal limbo, after the Bordeaux prosecutor initiated procedures to annul their marriage. The couple, their lawyers and Mr Mamère say they will take the case to the European Court of Human Rights.
Mr Mamère's strategy is to force other politicians to take a stand on homosexual marriage. For him, it's a question of equality. "Sexual orientation, like race, religion, political opinions or a handicap, must not be a barrier to enjoying rights and freedom," he wrote in a front-page Le Monde article which he entitled "Provocation as a Political Tool."
Not since last year's debate on the Islamic headscarf has French society been so obsessed by an issue. Stéphane and Bertrand sold exclusive rights to their wedding photographs to the tabloid magazine VSD for €5,000. On a television talk show after their wedding, they refused to express an opinion on adoption by homosexual couples.
So why did they want to marry? the presenter asked them. "We just wanted to be like our parents," replied Bertrand.
French opponents of homosexual marriage often argue that it is a discredited, old-fashioned institution which should be shunned by modern, sexually liberated people.
The PACS (civil solidarity pact), a sort of legal half-way between living together and marriage, came into effect in 1999.
An ugly debate preceded its enactment. One right-wing deputy brandished a Bible in the National Assembly. Another suggested that France should "sterilise homos". A senator said the acronym stood for "Practice of AIDS Contamination" and anti-PACS demonstrators chanted: "Burn homos at the stake".
Homosexual rights resurfaced as an issue in January of this year, after Sébastien Nouchet (35) was doused with petrol and set alight in his garden by three men who taunted him with the words "Die, homo!"
Nouchet survived, but outrage over the attack prompted the President and Prime Minister of France to write to Mr Nouchet's companion expressing their sympathy.
In March Le Monde published a "Manifesto for equal rights" asking mayors to celebrate homosexual marriages. On April 9th Noël Mamère volunteered to organise the country's first homosexual wedding.
For a country with a reputation for sexual permissiveness, France is slow in addressing the question. Holland authorised marriage between homosexuals in 2001. Belgium created civil marriage for homosexuals - but without access to adoption or medically assisted procreation - last year.
The new Spanish Prime Minister, Mr Jose Luis Zapatero, has promised to allow homosexuals to marry this year.
The French right has proposed two measures in the hope of satisfying homosexual rights groups. The ruling UMP promises to pass a law punishing homophobic acts, and has established a working group to "improve" the PACS by making it more like marriage.