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
We left Paris on Friday morning and took the train to Poitiers, about a two hour ride. Having to schlep all our luggage from the hotel, three blocks to the metro and up and down umpteen stairways was no picnic, especially in all this heat and humidity. We picked up a rental car in Poitiers… Read More Ensemble Huelgas: Choral Perfection
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… Read More In the footsteps of Duruflé and Messiaen
With temperatures in the 90s, we really weren’t looking forward to spending another hot, sweaty day among the hordes of tourists. So we wisely got up at the crack of dawn, ate breakfast in the hotel, and were on the train to Versailles by 8:30 a.m. That put our arrival at the Versailles at 9:05… Read More Victory at Versailles!
Even though we only visited two churches today, they were both magnificent edifices.The weather was absolutely picture-perfect with blue skies and cool breezes. The first stop was St Clotilde, the church where César Franck was organist. Carl and I absolutely loved this Gothic building, with its very high ceilings and wide transepts. It’s in buildings… Read More St Clotilde and Chartres