Day Ten France
 
The next morning I said good bye to London and headed back to Paris. Ann Elise Smoot walked me back to the Clapham South underground station to prevent me from getting slightly lost, as I did the previous morning. I made my train back to the Gare du Nord and was to meet Daniel Roth at St. Sulpice to make a trip I wanted to do the past two trips in Paris, going up the towers at the Cathedral of Notre Dame. We met there around noon. I left my over-grown camera bag in the organ gallery and we took the metro to Notre Dame. There we waited in a very long line. Daniel had questions for me about Ernest Skinner and G. Donald Harrison, and I had many questions about the great French composers. With this conversation the line moved pretty fast. We soon climbed the spiral stairs up to the first level, which is right at the base of the northern bell tower. The view over Paris was amazing - the Seine was right below us; the Eiffel Tower was in the distance; St. Sulpice was a clear as day. Next we view the bourdon bell in the southern tower, I have come to greatly enjoy the sound of bells in France, they have a magnificent and majestic sound, their peal is very different from England. I am not too sure how old the current bourdon bell is but they had to turn the bell so the clapper strikes a different part of the part of the skirt of the bell. The bell has 2 large indentations where the clapper must hand struck it for years. After this we went all the way to the top of the tower and the view of Paris where AMAZING! We stopped at the café next to the north tower for some coffee. Daniel Roth told me stories about Tournemire and his improvisations. One story was humorous. It takes place at St-Germain-des Pres.At that time the organist had to improvise almost all the time during the Mass. Tournemire often didn't like to have brilliant "sorties". One Sunday morning Tournemire was improvising in a meditative way during the Communion and was going on and on. Somebody at the organ loft told him:"Maitre, it will be soon the Sortie". Tournemire didn't change his meditative improvisation. After a while - it was really the end of the Mass, this person said "Maitre, c'est la Sortie" (It is really the Sortie) and Tournemire didn't change his playing and answered "eh bien, sortez..." which means go away, you can go... Sortez is the imperative form of the verb sortir. Jokes are difficult to translate. There were also interesting stories about Vierne and his relations with the clergy at Notre Dame. I found all of these stories amazing to listen to. After that I had to run some errands before dinner. That night Mr. & Mrs. Roth invited to have dinner with them and spend the night at their home. We had a wonderful duck dinner, cheese and wine. Afterwards, I had to go film a short video and take some photos of Vincent Dubois at St. Sulpice for my podcast and CD booklet. I jumped in a cab – the cab drive spoke no English and I speak NO FRENCH! – and said “St. Sulpice, please.” Soon enough, I was there and met Michel at the back door around 10pm. Vincent was practicing Franz Liszt’s Evocation of the Sistine Chapel. Michel was on one side and Vincent’s classmate - Johann Vexo assistant choir-organist at Notre Dame - was on the other side. They quickly flipped through registration sheets which told them what stops to pull, and were changing the stops almost as fast as Vincent played notes! (I don’t even think I have ever seen computerized combination actions change stops so fast.) They practiced while I took lots of photos, and before midnight I filmed my video. The four of us went afterwards to O Neil’s, a wonderful brewery a 1/2 block from St. Sulpice (the first place I ate in Paris 2 years before). We had a round of beers and then one of my friends found me a cab and told the driver where to take me.
The Bell Towers at Notre Dame and St. Sulpice at night
Thursday May 11, 2006