Lake Kir and an organ concert at Saint Bénigne de Dijon

Last night (Saturday night) Isabelle hosted a big party for her friends who helped her move in to the apartment in June.  There were probably close to 25 people there, and the event lasted from 20h30 until 1h45 (8:30PM until 1:45AM).  I was impressed that everyone stayed so late!  It was very enjoyable, though I was nervous at the beginning about meeting so many French people.  Man, did the introductions (walking around the circle of chairs and giving bises and shaking hands) go on forever!  I grabbed a seat early, so I mostly had to stand and receive bises.

Since it was a late night, I felt validated taking a grosse matinee (lazy/late morning).  After lunch I went for a bike ride, though - to Lake Kir and beyond!  There is a very nice bike path along there, and it was a pleasant ride when I wasn't dodging strollers and families.  The weather recently has been amazing, and today was no exception - qu'il fasse beau aujourd'hui!  The lake is apparently artificial, with a sandy beach of maybe 75 feet deep and a few hundred feet long.  It looked like you could have gone swimming, if the high was above 66 °F (18.9 °C).  Mainly, though, there are lots of paths for strolling and biking.  It's far enough away from Dijon that some small hills (les collines) surrounded the lake and its path.  Very beautiful!  I kept on biking for a ways more past the lake, going through what appeared to be community gardens and up into another town.  I had to turn back once I got to the town, however, because I was going to a concert at 17h!  I hope to explore more of the biking path in that direction another day.

Kirsty and I had already visited the Cathédrale Saint Bénigne last week, and we'd picked up information about some music concerts.  Since one of the concerts was coming up, we decided to go.  Will, another British assistant who is working at two middle schools, also attended.  The concert we chose was an organ performance.  We sat facing the back of the auditorium; as appears to be a trend in European churches with organs (maybe just Catholic cathedrals?  I'm no expert...), the organ was at the back of the sanctuary.  It was amusing to see half of the chairs turned backward.

Five pieces were played (F); Bach, Mozart, Alain, Werner, and Dupre.  The Dupre and the middle movement of the Alain were probably my favorite pieces, followed by the Mozart.  Surprisingly, I enjoyed the Bach ricercar the least!  I found it cacophonous, actually - while I normally love to hear the complex interweaving melodies of Bach pieces (this was a six-voice piece), the acoustics of this organ made it too much for me.  It was difficult to distinguish the voices from the loud reverberations.

I did think ahead, though, and brought my recorder to the concert!  I started recording partially through the introduction of the Mozart, so here are the four files I have:

1. Wolfgang-Amadeus MOZART, Adagio et Rondo en Ut mineur, K617
2. Jehan ALAIN, Suite pour orgue
1. Introduction
2. Variation Scherzo
3. Variation Choral
3. Jean-Jacques WERNER, Le Cantique de Siméon
4. Marcel DUPRE, Carillon (extrait des sept pièces)

If someone has a suggestion of how to better incorporate the files, I'm all ears.  Listening will not be as streamlined as I originally had hoped.

Tomorrow I have class observations starting at 8AM, yay... also, none of the assistants seem to know what's happening Tuesday, because we've heard there is going to be a big grève (strike) in the transportation and education sectors.  Since we were told the first two weeks are supposed to be observation only, most people have not yet received their final schedules and are playing things by ear.  While I understand that figuring out the details of an assistant's schedule (temporary and for the full year) can be complicated, we're being kept on our toes a bit more than hoped.