SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2008

Here it is Saturday and the end of week five. Yesterday we had noticed on one of the buses that it's route would be altered due to a "manifestation" at the place de la Bastille at 2 p.m. today. We decided to go up there to see what it was all about. We took a seat at the Café Français for a cappuccino and to watch the happenings. We noticed that the statue in the center was surrounded by a large tarp-like curtain that had several signs on it. They asked people, basically, to turn in their beverage cans and plastic bottles, and to bring in their rubbish in exchange for gifts.

We deduced that this was going to be a gathering to show support for recycling and for environment concerns. Notice this sign that says "Drinking water from the faucet is an ecological act".

The balloons gave some of the same messages.

There were large numbers of people gathered as you can see. Most of them seemed to be young people and it looked as if they came in groups. There seemed to be a very festive air about the whole proceedings.

We left after about an hour since we had another (yes, another) concert that we wanted to see. We took the métro up to the place de l'Étoile and started walking toward the place des Ternes. We stopped off at la Maison du Chocolat, one of the most well-known chocolate shops in Paris. We purchased enough for about a week at the rate of one per day.

As we headed off for the concert, we came across a beautiful Russian orthodox cathedral called Saint Alexander Nevsky. It is hidden on a small street called the rue Daru on the edge of the 8th arrondissement. We went inside and found a magnificent church full of art work of Russian orthodoxy. Photos of the interior were forbidden so all we can show you is the exterior.

We arrived at the Église suédoise (Swedish church), one of the many foreign churches in Paris. We heard a wonderful concert by the Stockholm Cantus. Almost every work they performed was a capella. The final piece of the concert was a work written by a member of the chorus and a contemporary composer in Sweden. It was a magnificent piece. The text is based on a portion of a work by Dag Hammarskjold, a former Secretary General of the UN. The choral work is called "The Longest Journey". The composer sang the tenor solo. His name was Kjell Perder. After the concert we had a chance to talk to him. In general, Swedes are very proficient in English. We had an interesting conversation with him about the work and he even gave us a copy of the piece.

It took us a long time to get back to the apartment for dinner since the demonstration was still going on at that time ( 7 p.m.) and the buses were again forced to detour. We needed three buses to get back. Needless to say, dinner was a bit later than usual.