Carl wanted to eat seafood so we drove to La Rochelle, a seacoast town on the Atlantic. It was an absolutely gorgeous day and we quickly decided to park the car rather than negotiate all the winding, narrow streets. Without too much trouble, we found the harbor, and the cool ocean breezes were very refreshing and welcoming.

Because it was too early to eat lunch, we decided to explore a bit of the town and found St Sauveur and Notre Dame churches without too much difficulty.

But then we fell victim to our usual getting lost routine and we went round and round in circles trying to find the restaurant which advertised mussels and fries which we had seen earlier. But at last we found it and consumed nearly 100 mussels apiece (by our estimates!)

Tonight’s concert was the biggest draw of the festival, a program of Josquin motets directed by the founder of the festival, Philippe Herreweghe. We took one of the last two spaces left in the parking lot and they had set up extra chairs in the Abbaye to accommodate all the people.

And no one went away disappointed. As Carl said, “Kathy, it doesn’t get any better than this!” There were 12 in the choir: 3 sopranos, 3 countertenors, 3 tenors and 3 basses. This marked the 40th anniversary of Collegium Vocal Ghent and there’s a reason why this group has survived after all these years: they are truly world-class.