The last of the summer European tours is behind us. The Rose Ensemble headed out to Paris and Tours for a whirlwind 4 days in France with 2 concerts in different cities. We had a blast. The first concert, part of the Festival d’Ile de France, was in an ancient cathedral (not surprising) in the village of Larchant near famous Fontainbleu, about an hour’s drive from Paris.
The church building has attracted pilgrims from the 12th century onwards and was witness to the religious turmoil that characterised medieval French history. Evidence of this is found in the ruins of part of the building that has been preserved for us to see today.
The acoustics are sweet. We performed our Hawaiian show here with the full
band, Greg Hippen on acoustic bass, David Burke on ukelele and guitar, and Wade Oden on guitar, along with a new arrangement of Lili’u e for the women – sultry and warm, like a summer’s day on the beach in Waikiki.
Jordan & Tim left a few days earlier to teach a Hawaiian music master class to a local French choir. In the six hours, they learned and performed for the crowd three Hawaiian songs before our concert on the outside steps and came up to join us in the last number, Hawaii Aloha. Although amateur, they sang loud and proud and did a respectable job not having much exposure to the language.
We were filmed for French TV, recorded for France Radio and interviewed. After the 4:30 concert I was hoping to get back to the hotel in enough time to hop the Metro to some of the Parisian sites later that evening, but we didn’t get back to our hotel in Paris until 10pm after sitting in 2 hours of traffic.
Dinner was on the agenda at this point, which isn’t easy to find on a Sunday night, even in Paris, but we managed to find a nice cafe at the end of our block in the Place d’Italie. And not too bad, I might add. I had this incredible salad of lettuce, thin green beans, thick bacon pieces, fried potato slices, and all this topped with two duck thighs, brilliant. Oh yeah, finish this off with probably the best creme brullee and you won’t miss the fact that you just spent 5 euro 40 on a cup of coffee.
The next morning, an early train at 9am to leave for Tours. I wrote a little history about our Sister City in my last blog, so I’ll try not to bore you again. We arrived safe & without incident, checked into our quaint Hotel l’Europe very close to the train station and then met in the lobby to walk to our venue for the next night’s concert at the Eglise Notre Dame La Riche for the opening of the Festival de Musiques Anciennes.
The walk was a good half-hour and led us through the Medieval quarter of the City. When you walk through
this area, just think of the Canterbury Tales – timber exposed buildings with wood-carved cornices that still remain today and saved from demolition in the 1970s. You seriously have to thank the Gods for that. Today it is a bustling area full of shoppes and cafes, and some incredible ruins of the once vast Basilica of St. Martin.
According to history, the church was completely demolished in 1793 during the Revolution. All the remained of the basilica was the two towers which are still standing. To ensure the basilica could not be rebuilt, the atheistic municipality caused two streets to be opened up on its site.
After our 3-hour rehearsal for the Slavic show, we hurried back to our hotel to change for a dinner with the City officials at the beautiful Hotel d’Ville.
Great conversation, wonderful food, and gifts from the City welcomed us, 
in a way, back home to the first European city we had the priviledge to sing in, almost 3 years ago. It was wonderful to see the familiar faces of Bruno and Marie-Bernarde as well as meet new friends and the director of Diablous Musicus, who The Rose Ensemble will be presenting in early November in Minneapolis.
Tuesday was a mostly free day. I wandered the streets of the city, past the glorious 13th century Cathédrale Saint-Gatien de Tours, home to some incredible 13th century stained glass, most notably the St. Martin Window, then finding myself looking down at the Loire River rushing under the bridge, and then leisurely walking up the Rue Nationionale lined with its expensive boutiques and department stores.
Most of us met for lunch at one of our favorite restaurants in Tours, Au Martin Bleu. The food is still remarkable and highly recommended for anyone that has the chance to visit Tours. My meal started with a salad 
with Scallops St. Jacques, lightly grilled and melt-in-your-mouth good. My second course main entree consisted of lamb chops in a beautiful demi-glace with roasted potatoes and fresh vegetables. Yum. I actually passed on the dessert, since this was a meal that was costing me about 25 euros, but from what I witnessed and got to taste, the prize was the homemade lavendar ice cream. A vanilla based ice cream, extremely rich and creamy with a hint of fresh lavendar, not at all perfumey, but delightful.
Our concert went well that evening, and we were once again treated out to dinner at 10:30pm at one of the medieval cafes by our City hosts.
Goodbyes were said around 1am and we all sang Namalakama la and Aloha O’e for the restaurant staff and new friends. Alas, remains of packing still to be done and an early train still awaited us at 7:30 the next morning for our trip home.
As always, your comments are more than welcome! Stay in touch and thank you for your continued support!
~Lisa