Since it was our last day in France, we decided to go for one more adventure — to see the cathedral in Orléans, about 64 miles from our hotel in Tours. We checked out of the hotel, ate a quick breakfast and were on our way by 8:40 am. Then the fun began. Always when… Read More Orléans Cathedral and Tarte Tatin
The weather was absolutely gorgeous when we woke up this morning with clear blue skies and a light breeze — just perfect. We had quite a long metro ride into town, including two transfers, but emerged from the subway to see the vaulted back of St Eustache straight ahead. It, like many of the churches… Read More Spectacular St Eustache and Cité de la Musique
We packed our bags and checked out of the hotel before spending the morning at McDonald’s. Our final concert was two more Graupner and Bach cantatas, again sung with stellar soloists, Dorothee Mields, Damien Guillon and Peter Kooij. The chorus was just 12 singers, as before, and Carl says this is the ideal number for… Read More Bach to Paris — a comedy of errors!
We started out our day at the local McDonald’s (!) only for coffee and internet access. We were unwilling to pay the $10/hr the hotel was charging, so our access to the internet has been very catch-as-catch-can in cafes. I must say, though, the McDonald’s here in Saintes is very upscale, and nicer than any… Read More Our last full day in Saintes
Up to now, we have enjoyed having our days free with the major concerts happening at night. That has left us time to do some exploring of some of the cities around Saintes. I’ve already written about our day trips to Cognac, La Rochelle and Bordeaux. I’ve been very drawn to the beautiful countryside here,… Read More Great artists, great people
Today, July 15th, 2010, is our 33rd wedding anniversary. It was on this day 33 years ago that LCH held one of the most elaborate weddings ever! I remember it was the week before the wedding, and Carl and I decided to compile a To-Do list. There were 115 items on the list! I already… Read More 33 Years of Music-Making
We woke up to rain — lots of it, cats and dogs, but decided to go with our plan to drive to Bordeaux. It rained most of the way, but when we arrived, it was cloudy but dry. We expected that most of the stores would be closed for the holiday, and were pleasantly surprised… Read More Bastille Day in Bordeaux
We went to the 10:30 am mass at the Cathedral St Pierre and learned there was sort of international festival with groups in native costume from Kenya, Malaysia, Japan and Paraguay. Outside of the Mozart piece the organist played as the prelude, the rest of the service had music performed by young people from these… Read More Sunday in Saintes
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… Read More World-Class Collegium Vocale Ghent
Today the weather definitely changed which was a relief after all the heat and humidity, and we drove to the town of Cognac, about half an hour away. We parked the car and quickly found the tourist office. Of course we wanted to visit one of the cognac distilleries, so we walked quite some distance… Read More Cognac and Couperin