Friday, September 19, 2014

Today we had a leisurely day. We did a bit of food shopping, had dinner in early, and then went to a choral concert in the Swedish church near the Arc de Triomphe. We had been there a number of time for concerts in the past. This evening we heard an excellent choir called  the Chorale Cantilena from Norway. The music was excellent and they even performed several pieces that we had done rather recently. There were 23 singers and unfortunately only twenty-one in the audience. Still in all, they sang with full generosity to the small audience. There is no photo of the outside of the church since there is a lot of scaffolding due to repairs but here is the sanctuary.

The choir in the sanctuary.

We had an interesting experience on the way home from the concert. We took the number 30 bus and then transferred to the number 65 but  we got on one going in the opposite direction. It took us through a largely immigrant area which did not look too enticing so we stayed on the bus to the end and then took the bus back in the correct direction. The end of the line was at the extreme northern border of the city so it took about twenty minutes to get to our stop. Interesting to see the streets at night in that area of Paris. People have told us that this is not too good an area at night. While on the bus we saw a pickpocket in action with his buddy. They would drop coins on the floor of the bus and when someone bent down to help pick them up, gone was the wallet. When the victim went up to the driver, the wallet mysteriously appeared on the floor. We saw them try it on another couple but were not successful. You always have to be careful when traveling.