It was a text conversation last week with concert organist Nathan Laube that has caused a diversion in my daily activities.

You see, in booking our air reservations for our European trip, I mistakenly had us arrive one day earlier in Toulouse than the start of our GoAhead tour to France, Spain and Portugal.

In researching our options to either try to change our reservations or finding something to do in Toulouse, I opted for the latter. Why not find some pipe organs to visit? Somehow I happened upon the article, “Discovering the Hidden Organ Lofts of Paris and Toulouse,” with Nathan Laube, who hosts a radio program in Chicago devoted to pipe organs.

Pipe organs have been seen as old relics or museum pieces; but every pipe organ has a story, and they are a reflection of their time, place, and function.

In All the Stops, internationally renowned concert organist and educator Nathan Laube shares his passion for these living and breathing instruments. Join Nathan as he takes you around the world and performs the organ’s finest repertoire on magnificent instruments throughout Germany; France; Slovenia and Croatia; and the United States. In four, two-hour programs, discover the pipe organ’s fascinating history and stunning music on All the Stops.

I quickly wrote a text message to Nathan, who reminded me that it’s been ten (!) years since he played a concert in Honolulu. He graciously gave me the contact information for several Toulouse organists, but then he wrote this:

“Do you speak French at all?”

Truth be told, the last time I truly spoke French was in 1968, after having four years of French study in high school, and when I studied with French virtuoso, Marcel Dupré! When I returned home from my 3-1/2 month stay in Paris, I spoke French well enough to pass out of the language requirements at USC. BUT —That was OVER FIFTY YEARS AGO! Ay-yi-yi!

I immediately started reviewing French on my Duolingo app, and to my surprise, I still remember the conjugations of irregular verbs! So now in addition to the couple of hours I spend learning Spanish with Duolingo, I’m now taking an hour a day to review French as well.

One of my bilingual friends calls this “changing the channel.”

However, I’ve forgotten which nouns are masculine or feminine, and what’s especially bad news is that I’m mixing up the conjunctions — I’m using “el” instead of “le,” and “los” instead of “les”! Worst of all, I’m using “muy” instead of “très” as in “muy bien” instead of “très bien.” YIKES!

Now that I’ve studied Spanish so intensively over the past three years, I’m mixing up the two languages! My friend, Cindy Scheinert, calls this frañol or espancés!

In the meantime, I found a wonderful website which details all of the pipe organs in Toulouse

Toulouse has one of the finest collections of organs in Europe. It includes unique historical organs of different styles and periods, including the great Cavaillé-Coll of the Saint-Sernin Basilica. These instruments have benefited from a restoration policy initiated and encouraged by Xavier Darasse and undertaken by the city of Toulouse since the 1970s. Beautifully made new instruments complete the collection, such as the organ built for the Musée des Augustins in 1981 by the great German organ builder Jürgen Ahrend. There are thus about 30 instruments, including 10 outstanding organs, to be discovered in the city center alone!

Unfortunately, we’re arriving a few days after the end of the Toulouse Organ Festival, October 5-16, 2022!

Quel dommage!

P.S. Today would have been our 45th wedding anniversary. How Carl Crosier would have loved this upcoming trip to France!