saturday night fever

Saturday night, we met our friends in the country for an evening of music.

We met Doc and her sister-in-law, Vero, at a pizzeria, which had good pizza but terrible service. Then we were off to the teeny village of Nully to hear Doc's husband sing in his choir, Allegria. We arrived in the middle of the first choir's set, which was... erm... interesting. I confess the four of us couldn't stop giggling. There's nothing in the world like listening to a bunch of French country folk singing Southern Spirituals. I was quite surprised when the audience started to clap along, but we learned later that Marc's choir was actually clapping along to help the singers keep their tempo. Otherwise, they sang common French songs (Steph said they were songs children sing in school) with... erm... interesting arrangements.

Like we say back home, Bless their hearts.

Allegria was, in fact, quite good. They opened with another Southern Spiritual, but they sounded great and not unlike any other white-bread choir (like my high school choir - we sang "Keep Your Lamps Trimmed and Burning" and we were just as... well... white), and went into "I'm Talkin' Bout Feedom" (this was an error in the program that didn't help the giggle-fest). They also did a Mozart piece and a traditional French piece I quite like called "La Nuit" (aka "O Nuit").

For the encore, the choir sat with the audience and we learned a couple of songs en masse to sing in the round (like you do with "Row Row Row Your Boat" or somesuch). I personally think one song would have been sufficient, but by God we were going to do a second which was much more complicated than the first. Do you know, Steph has a lovely, lovely voice and I wish to God I could convince him to sing in the choir with me. Anyway it was fun, but did go on a bit too long.

After the concert, we left Marc to his dinner with the choir and went back to the town where we ate to look for some dessert or something. We ended up at The Bar (yep, the only one in town) across from the courthouse. We sat outside and enjoyed the warm evening, while being entertained by a guy on a drumkit accompanying a cd player.

No, really. Let that sink in a minute: a guy on a drumkit playing along with well-known songs. It was "Tragedy" (Tragedy!) by the BeeGee's when we arrived. Fan-freakin-tastic!

Unfortunately, we had to leave at midnight, so as not to turn into pumpkins (especially since we had the in-laws coming for lunch the next day), but it was so so great to hang out with Doc again. I have to say, Doc has finally started her own blog but it is a private affair, which is too bad, as she's wickedly funny. Here's hoping she'll join us one of these days.