France: July 2015 Don’t Worry, Be HaRpy – The Whirlwind Adventure!

The Chateau de Blandy Les Tours – what a setting! It is fairytale-like, and very hot. There is a heat wave happening in the region with temperatures reaching Ninety-eight degrees Fahrenheit! We arrive in Paris and are driven immediately to the castle for the first of two nine hour rehearsals. This is no tourist trip. We get right to work. We have a show to do.

I am so exhausted. I can never sleep on planes. It doesn’t matter how long the flight is. I was worried about my knees! How will I survive an eight hour plus one layover flight? Luckily, on this Air Canada flight, I got a seat on the bulkhead and was able to fully extend my legs. It was a miracle!

The first day’s rehearsal is a blur. What I clearly remember is the charming village restaurant where we dined for long leisurely lunches in the heat. The food was so great. Homemade Foie Gras! “Ahhh, this is France!” I keep thinking. The restaurant is situated right across the narrow road from the castle. Lunch with a view.

Day Two is my birthday which starts with another 11AM call and a long rehearsal which gets cut short at 9pm by a violent thunder storm. We end the night at a wonderful restaurant with drinks, laughter and a DJ playing songs from my college days. I mean dusties like “Bounce, Rock, Skate!” Crazy!

I get to my hotel room too tired to even do Facebook with our free WIFI (pronounced WEEFEE) Did I mention that the “WEEFEE” does not work at the castle?

Sunday (Show day) we arrive at the castle for a complete run through of the show. Our composer Isabelle Olivier has added a chorale of about 30 middle aged folks from the area – a group of lovely, happy folk who provide a pot-luck “picnic” and a touching Happy Birthday song to me en Francais.

Show time comes and the courtyard/field of the castle is filled. The show goes off without a hitch. We are staged under an old growth tree in the hot Summer Sun and we are done. Time to go back to our home base hotel and pack up to head to a convenient airport hotel for our last night in France, but first Isabelle treats us to a wonderful dinner in Central Paris. We arrive at the Centre Pompidou, the famous Paris museum and arts center. It’s a crazy building that looks like it’s under construction (by design)

Behind the Pompidou is a plaza with dozens of restaurants and cafes all lined up alongside the Stravinsky Fountain (a huge pool filled with whimsical and kinetic industrial sculptured fountains)

and bordered by a cathedral and a fantastic wall of graffiti art.

This stop made the trip. We had a lovely nosh and posed for photos by the fountain. Then we are off to Charles de Gaulle and our hotel home for the night.

I wake up early, go downstairs for my free breakfast and begin the hellacious trek to the airport terminal. Charles De Gaulle is one congested, crazy place. Dreams of O’Hare International Airport fill my head. I am walking for miles in pain but I make it. I don’t know how, but I arrive at the gate. I grab my seat on the bulkhead again, watch three great movies and I think I actually slept for a couple of hours! I arrive home four days after my departure. It was a whirlwind adventure indeed!