les flanerie musicales de Reims

From the middle of June to the end of July, Reims puts on a daily music festival in the parks and cathedrals and historical places around town. It's probably just for the tourists, but I was excited to find out from our B&B host that the Jazz concert that night was free. And in a park. Here, in fact:



Alyson and I got hungry about halfway through because everyone else had thought to bring a delicious picnic that just anyone could stare at while you at. So we went to an un-American-influenced Asian place with the best little Croque Vietnamiesse things that were a combination of pork and shrimp, wrapped in something like a pork dumpling would be... anyway, amazing. Ten times better.

The concert we just got back from, which ended in a run from the cathedral into a thunderstorm -- without an umbrella! -- was in the Basilique de Saint-Remi. I hope I captured the lighting; my camera was dying something fierce and it really was beautiful.

The symphony performed three pieces made up of arias, bombastic crescendos, latin choruses (translated in the program into French, of all things) and all the trappings of classical music. Delightful! And I even got the student discount...