St-Lizier Concert 3

It is a hard life being on tour. Satnav programmed I travelled in top half civvies to save wear on the shirt as it was 33 degrees in the shade. This time I forgot to take any water along, but only one return to the apartment was required before I set off.
It was a lovely drive with the Pyrenees on my left. I had visited St-Lizier earlier in the year, so I knew the wayish. As you will remember, it is listed as one of France's 100 most beautiful villages. (yes that is a link to more information)

I was the first to arrive at 5-30pm. Set up time was needed and rehearsal was scheduled for 6.30pm. An email edict had indicated that we were still having problems……. With our entrance and exit procedures.
The village has a huge bishop’s palace (specially built for huge bishops) which re-opens to the public next year and which is a world heritage site. The church is very old too.
It was much smaller than our previous churches and I estimated that if full, it would hold about 230 people.

That was before the first 2 or 3 rows of pews were manhandled into side chapels to make room for the piano, harmonium, conductor and soloists.
I should know better, but the warm-up and rehearsal did not take place until 7.30pm. We ate our sandwiches in the cloisters attached to the church and this was also our changing room.

Some people even found time to play "Pass the sausage"

With the concert due to start at 9pm we eventually trickled on to the “stage” at 9.15pm. During the brief rehearsal, we learned that this was the tenor soloist’s home village. Aaah!
As far as I could tell, this was our best performance to date and for once it was not like singing in a huge, echoey, stone barn.
Thankfully there was no after-show aperitif, so I did not hang around for too long after the gig.
One little girl who was sitting at the front, lasted for about 15 minutes before starting to droop, eventually ending up almost horizontal on her chair and her mother. Still the church was possibly three quarters full? Another long, hot, sunny day in France.