Last night was the night of the concert (that Marc gave me tickets to for Mother's Day). Two of Marc's students offered to babysit, which was quite a treat for us, since we hardly ever to go out alone together here.
We decided to take a taxi (our first since the dreadful trip from the airport) and it was so delightful. I was a bit worried about how much it would cost when the fare was up to 2,60 euros after we had only turned a corner, but it wasn't too bad, especially to go all the way up to Montmartre! Yesterday was really hot, so it was particularly nice not to have to go on 2 metro rides. It's so fun to see the city by car -- our driver took us past Les Invalides, Concorde, the Opera, the Champs-Elysees, and it was even better to see it all by night on our way home.
(a blurry interior shot of the building, on the way to the theater/concert hall)I wish I had some photos of the inside of the theater and the concert itself, but sadly my camera is terrible in such low-light conditions. There was no air conditioning and it was dreadfully hot inside, yet I saw many French people wearing jackets! I'll never understand that. We sat in the front row of the balcony, right above the stage, and we had a great view. My knees were scrunched up against the front of the balcony, and they got very sore from not being able to stretch my legs out at all. But despite all of that...
It was fabulous! The concert hall was quite small (I estimated maybe 1000 people), and it made for a very intimate performance. Maurane has been a favorite of ours for years and years and it was fun to see her in person -- she is a wonderful stage performer and definitely did not disappoint -- in fact I enjoyed it even more than I expected!
Her opening act was a woman named Claudia Meyer. She had a great voice, and I enjoyed her music, although I think I would have enjoyed it even more if I could understand Spanish! (Claudia, I thought of you the whole time she was singing. If you haven't heard her music, you should check it out.)
I was amazed that Maurane sang for 2 full hours. (I've been to some concerts where the main group only performs for about 45 minutes, which is so disappointing after you've waited through the opening act, which is usually someone you don't even know.) She did 4 encores and had 5 surprise guests that sang with her! I didn't know any of the guest singers, but the French audience seemed to. They were all really good.
I left feeling great -- happy to stretch my legs, excited about live music, anxious to listen to Maurane's new cd, and thrilled to have had a great date with Marc in Paris!
