L'Opéra etcetera

Lunch was my first appointment today! We frequent a place that makes us feel like part of the family and serves wonderful food, Les Fous de l'Île. It is at 33 rue des deux ponts just off the pont marie. Over lunch we take stock of where we're up to. Tonight we'll record the pièce de resistance for the Buxtehude album. Just wonderful music which displays everything from the most delicate sounds to the full power of this organ.

After lunch, David did some more practice, now without stops because the church is open to the public for meditation and it wouldn't do to have such moments of tranquility shattered by a 32 foot stop and its shorter siblings speaking at the top of their voices!

Stopping only to see if the latest L'Occitane stock had arrived, Alec and I took the Métro from Cité up to Les Galleries Lafayette, spending most time in the food hall where we bought some comestabules on which to munch in the evening. I think this food hall could rival the one at Harrod's for sheer varity, but Harrod's takes the gâteau for oppulence.

Tours of L'Opéra nearby were called off for the day, but we did look around the foyer and the botique of this sumptuous building, then took the Métro back to the island. As it happens we could have stayed on: there was a mass in progress when we got back just before 7pm, so we sat on the steps of l'église to eat while watching some sort of street party gather pace across the narrow street. A good job most of the later music was loud or we would have heard the voices from the street on the recording. Following the mass, there was a private service for 6 people which lasted an hour - so we could have continued the retail therapy until nearly 8pm, but I'm sure the meditation was better for me!

Afterwards we visited a little jazz bar on la rue des deux ponts. Very smooth jazz.