Saturday in St Julien du Sault was such a wonderful experience that our only fear was that the rest of the tour would be an anticlimax. Not so!

All BFCS tours have something unusual that singers talk about for years. For this tour, it will be the time we sang the Hallelujah Chorus in the square outside Sens Cathedral! This started with one singer, followed by everyone else joining in from all over the square, and coming together in an informal crowd. The sound bounced off the walls of the cathedral, enabling us to hear all the parts and sing with conviction! The customers in the restaurants couldn’t fail to know that our concert was coming!

The Cathedral was huge, so we were fully reconciled to the fact that we would probably only have a small audience. Imagine our amazement when we came out to find it was full! We estimated that there were at least 300 there. The warmth and enthusiasm of the audience inspired us to give our very best performance! 

Special memories of the day in Sens:

• Two little children starting to dance when we reached the swirly part of Parry’s ‘My soul there is a country’.
• A young lady walking the entire length of the church to the front row, as there were no other spare seats.
• Kevin Gill’s performance on the huge organ, filling the cathedral with sound. 
• Sarah-Ann Cromwell’s performance – managing to blend comedy with serious singing  (experience gained in the London Quartet, no doubt! )
• The man in the front seat who lept to his feet to applaud every time we finished a piece (and sometimes before!)
• The coach drivers getting trapped  in the tiny streets and having to go the wrong way down a one way street to get out! 

We have a day off from singing on Monday, then concerts in Vezelay Tuesday and Auxerre Wednesday. More blogs to follow.