Music Music Music

The past week for me has been one full of music - which is always a good thing!

It started last Wednesday when one of my students asked me to babysit for her - given the tragic state of my bank account I decided that indeed it would be a good idea to accept this opportunity to take home some cash in hand. What I didn't realise when I accepted to do this was that this particular student is the proud owner of a beautiful piano and that I would be allowed to play it whilst sitting on the baby (sorry Margaux - hope i wasn't too heavy). So, Wednesday was the first time I played piano since leaving good ol' oz almost 13 months ago - believe me I had missed it! Although, being Paris, where everybody lives in apartments and walls are paper thin, I was forced to play with the pedal on non-stop to quieten the sound coming out - not quite the same bashing of the keys that used to happen in Allambie Heights - but it was great all the same.

Thursday night was none other than the Fête de la musique which co-incides with the longest day of the year and the first day of summer (thats right - these weirdos over here start the seasons on the 21st of the month - whatever!). The Fête de la musique is as the name suggests a celebration of music. What this means is that the whole city is overtaken by music and that anywhere you go you will find people singing and playing in every kind of musical style you can imagine. For me, this night was also the birthday of a friend from work, and so we began the night on the Champs de Mars - the grassy area in front of the Eiffel Tower - with a lovely picnic. My roomie provided the music for this occassion as she brought along her guitar and sang us a few tunes. At about midnight we decided it was time to move on, so we headed to St Michel to go to a bar. The night was a bit crazy - the streets were full of 14 year old drunkards, who were so excited to have an excuse to be out at all hours of the evening. And of course, being France, the night wouldn't have been complete without public nudity - we were lucky enough to witness a guy who climbed to the top of the fountain at St Michel and then proceeded to strip and remain starkers whilst he admired the view from the incredible height he had climbed to - formidable!

By Saturday night I was ready for my next taste of music - this time in the form of a concert. So Christian, Olivier, Laurence, Delphine and I headed off to Le Trabendo (nice intimate venue - think the metro in sydney, but in a round set-up) to see Au revoir Simone. Despite the French name, this band is actually a group of 3 girls from New York playing indie tunes. As I didn't know the band very well - I was sent the music the night before and spent all day Saturday trying to become aquainted with it before the concert - I went into the gig with no expectations and I was very pleasantly surprised. The songs were great and played with such energy that there was a real positive atmosphere in the room. Very enjoyable! For those of you fluent in french, you should check out the link to Owen Noone and read the review 'it's saturday night and I don't want to go out' because it paints a great picture of the evening. After the set the girls were nice enough to join the crowd and speak to everyone. So as the boys amused themselves having photos and asking the ladies if they were engaged, I stood back and admired the band who were not only undeniably beautiful, but talented as well - hats off ladies.