Paris is a city that is most often associated with romance and love, couples arm-in-arm strolling the city streets.
A recent event challenged that long-held image, as newly single patrons attended a one-of-a-kind event.
The second divorce-related event, the New Start Fair, took place in Paris in early November.
Attendees found resources about how to hold on to their image in their new lifestyle, and how to find the right divorce lawyer and manage their separations, according to The Daily Mail.
More than 5,000 attendees attended the New Start Fair. At the fair, they found over 60 vendors and service providers who help deal with divorce and separation issues.
From legal advisors to life and dating counselors, the businesses represented are those that will help divorcees make the transition to their new lifestyle. Several notable seminars at the fair included, “The role of plastic surgery in re-conquering your image,” and, “Separation: What does a lawyer do?”
The event organizers claim that they are responding to the changing culture of divorce in Europe, and particularly in France. Recent statistics suggest that divorce is on the rise in France, where 50,000 divorces thirty years ago has increased to 130,000 divorces in 2007.
The prominent divorce of French President Nicolas Sarkozy just after he took office in 2007 also released divorce from much of the cultural stigma that had been associated with it in the past.
Event organizer Brigitte Gaumet told The Daily Mail that, “For me, [the Sarkozy divorce] crystallized how divorce has lost its stigma and is really a commonplace thing.”
Gaumet went on to note that there have long been bridal and marriage fairs that celebrate weddings, and that she sensed a need for resource fairs for those on the other side of the process. “Lots of people going through divorces,” she said, “and also people getting separated or who are widowed — are looking for information on how to bounce back and how to reconstruct.”
While legal services were among the more popular services represented at the fair, there were also fortune tellers, weight-loss firms, and makeover specialists hawking their products and advice.
This is the second of the divorce fairs. The world’s first divorce fair took place in Vienna, Austria, in 2007. The tone of that event was somewhat less wholesome.
New Beginnings featured exhibitors offering private detective services to spy on potentially unfaithful companions, and DNA testing facilities to ensure that child support payments are really necessary. In Austria, as in France, divorce rates have risen to near half of all marriages in the past few decades.
In a show of optimism, the first divorce fair did feature a marriage counselor willing to offer couples alternatives to divorce, and the Roman Catholic Church was also represented.
Back in Paris, two New Start attendees, Charles Rene and Verena Carlo, were skeptical of some of the offerings.
“Choosing a lawyer can be really complicated,” said Mr. Rene, “and this isn’t the kind of thing you just want to pick someone randomly out of the yellow pages for.”
Ms. Carlo added her own observation: “Just because you’re going to a divorce doesn’t mean you need to get laser hair removal or your fortune told,” she said. “I think it’s a bit weird, to be honest.”
