While French tourism struggles through a crisis, Paris has become wedded to a profitable 'niche' market: lovers will always be in love with the City of Light - and now they are being encouraged to tie the knot there.
At least 1,500 foreign couples get married in Paris every year. While holiday bookings are down because of the strength of the franc against other currencies, the wedding trade is expanding. Japanese couples, travelling with specialised agencies, think nothing of spending thousands. Among Europeans, Swedes are the most keen on a post-nuptial snap beneath the Eiffel Tower.
Aline Carasso, in charge of promotion at the Paris tourist office, is targeting the engaged.
'Paris's romantic image is one we do not have to work on,' she said. 'Paris is to most foreigners what Venice is to French people - the essence of romance. We are currently making a big push for Koreans.' French law precludes spur-of-the-moment church nuptials. So foreigners who want a religious ceremony in France must do what all French people do, first have a civil wedding.
Most foreigners choose to do this in their own countries since French mayors may only marry couples who have lived in France for 40 days. French candidates for civil marriage must also produce a 'pre-nuptial certificate', a doctor's letter based on a test checking for syphilis, tuberculosis and blood relationship.
But there are plenty of foreigners marching up the aisles in France. The American Church, on the Left Bank, makes a business of it. The Reverend Larry Kalajainen and his colleagues at the inter-denominational church marry an average of 10 couples a week with the Japanese far outnumbering Americans and others.
He declined to say what the church charges, but conceded that Japanese marriages were a sizeable part of the church's income.