Organists and Organ Playing, Travel

In the footsteps of Duruflé and Messiaen

St Etienne du Mont where Durufle was organist

Last night when we were looking for a restaurant recommended to us, we actually bumped into a church called St. Nicolas du Chardonnet. We sat down momentarily then found ourselves in the midst of a Tridentine Mass — that is, the service was done in the “old” style with the priest’s back to the congregation most of the time. Although he read the lessons in French, the rest of the service was in Latin.

Before leaving Paris this morning we stopped at two more churches: St Etienne du Mont where Durufle was organist and La Trinité, home church for Olivier Messiaen.

St. Etienne’s organ
We sing the Cantique de Jean Racine by Gabriel Fauré. His tomb is at St. Etienne du Mont.
The interior of La Trinité, Messiaen’s church
The interior of La Trinité where Olivier Messiaen was the organist. A complete description of the organ can be found on the Organ Historical Society webpage.