Wedding photo of Marie and Henri Modiano

This is a picture of Marie Abravanel and Henri Modiano’s wedding. Marie Abravanel was my husband Leo Abravenel’s sister. They got married just before the outbreak of World War I, in Salonica. 

Their wedding was very glamorous and I remember they had invited all the important guests. Many of them were from the French army since my father-in-law, Issac, provided them with wines brought from Crete. 

Marie, spoke French perfectly. Imagine that she used to speak Greek with a French accent. She played the piano and she was very much into fashion and cosmetics. She was among the first women to wear trousers but not in front of her husband. I remember she had an angel’s voice and she used to sing operas. And everyone thought that she was Maria Callas. She did not even know how to sew on a button. Marie did not do any housework and she always had maids to do it for her. But she behaved very badly to them. 

After World War II Henri became a real estate agent. He rented offices and big plots of land and earned a lot of money.