The day began abruptly at 6:45 A.M. with the clamor of an alarming wake up call from the illustrious Ibis Styles hotel in Paris. As noted by baritone Jaden Flaherty, the hotel is, “exactly like the bumper of my car: riddled with countless dents and water damage.” The array of breakfast food was, to quote John Kanter, “super super mid.” The slew of croissants (cwa-sawns) and double shots of espressos were a necessity to rally the choir after a late check-in the night before.
After most of us managed to gather ourselves down to lobby on time, we began the journey of what seemed like a lifetime into the cobblestone roads of Paris. Our Pariasian tour guide for the day, who’s name no one can seem to remember, shared stories of what to expect at our first stop, The Musée du Louvre. She told us we will see many scandalous Greek statues and provocative Renaissance paintings, and that we did. Our new driver, Mohammed, flexed the skilled techne of what it is to drive the narrow traffic filled streets of Paris. The choir explored the halls of the old palace, which holds The Mona Lisa, Liberty Leading the People, The Wedding at Cana, along with many works stolen from the African continent. This quick stop was just the beginning of our day-long exploration of what Paris has in store for us.
We then bussed off to the magnificent Eiffel Tower for the iconic tourist photo opportunity. I forcibly persuaded the choir to take the ritualistic .5 (point five) photo.
In need of sustenance “the squad rolled up” to the Galeries Lafayette Haussmann, which was a glorified Natick Mall, pimped out with Parisian architecture. To quote senior Micheal Duffy, “we experienced another mid meal.” (Editor’s note: I can’t decide if the description of food as “mid” reads as overly negative, which we, of course, would not want to portray. However, the lads have turned it into a thread running throughout the blog posts, so stay it must). While the cafeteria made the interesting choice to add olives to perfectly fine pizza, the food was overall passable. After taking in the sights of the city from the terrace, the beautiful boys were treated by the omnipotent and omniscient Dr. Marina Rozenberg to some well-earned gelato. The boys soon realized that they were in the La Femmes section and decided to take the pilgrimage over to the L’Homme section. After spending money that we quite frankly did not have, the boys, excluding myself, were on time to the meetup. I showed up 10 minutes later with a bag in hand, but no Jaquemues Chiquito necklace 😦 . Within minutes, our gang was once again on the bus, barely preparing for the upcoming performance. The collective then shuffled through traffic, barely surviving the maze of Parisian infrastructure and entered the Cathédrale de la Madeleine to rehearse for our concert. Our performance was mediocre at best (Editor’s note: it was lovely), and we struggled our way towards dinner, at a lovely little establishment below street level. The three-course meal we enjoyed was bittersweet as addresses were given by each of the seniors; toasts to our memories with Dr. Rozenberg, who was celebrating her 400 birthday, and the choir program. In addition to our heartfelt tributes to our time as choir members, we were pleasantly surprised with a good meal; thanks, Monssier Bill. We then switched buses in order to take a trip up the Seine on a Bâteau Mouche. “Roll Tides” and shouts of cheer were shared as we finally returned to our hotel for a restful night before our long trek back to Boston. See y’all soon!
Cordially,
The illustrious, magnificent, stylish, Johnny Sullivan
BC High Concert Choir 