By Sylvie.

When I left off my last blog post, I was rushing off to the Grande Halle des Villettes to check out Pitchfork Fest where Jonas was DJing. I arrived RIGHT on time, as Jonas was just warming into his first set. I hung around his DJ table chipping in my 2 cents here and there and bopping along to the jams he was dealing out. I must say, I think our boy did a pretty good job! I vote him my fave DJ from the night. After his first set it was time for Kathleen Edwards to play, and we traipsed out onto the floor of the huge venue (a former abattoir, we were told) to watch the set. Kathleen gets an A+ for her efforts to keep all her banter in French! I’m always too shy to say much more from the stage than a few careful comments. Then JB played another batch of the hits and just like that our responsibilities for the day were done! It was barely 5 o’clock, and we were free as birds to wander around and catch the rest of the acts. Jens Lekman’s set was a particular highlight… the man’s got charm. JB and me were dancing around side stage by the time Jens and his awesome drummer/backup singer played their sampler-heavy finale.

The venue filled more and more as the night went on, and was absolutely packed by the time Bon Iver took the stage with his huge posse. There were 9 of them onstage! 2 drummers, a horn section, couple guitars, and everyone switching up instruments whenever needed. We were super excited for this show, and watched the whole thing from the wings. Those dudes looked like they were having an awesome time up there. And it sounded great… man, what a show! I’m so glad we got to go to that. It was fun hanging out with Kathleen & her band and catching up on some Canadian-ness (once we finally found out where the food was hiding, which was a major mission and took us a long time and a fair bit of sleuthing). Plus JB got a sweet new pair of free shoes! Thanks to Claire & Greg from Super! for hooking us up with that gig.

The next morning we hauled ourselves out of bed and made our way out to the street where we flagged a cab and loaded it with all our stuff. Even after leaving much of our gear with the bus, we had about a whole person’s worth of extra stuff that we couldn’t properly carry ourselves, so the transfer from the cab into the Gare du Nord, and from the platform there onto our train to Amsterdam, were an interesting exercise in sherpa-ism. Carrying two guitars in one hand plus backpack and rolling suitcase? Yeah sure, no problem, I’m an expert. The train trip was smooth and quick and then we were out on our butts in the Amsterdam train station. Well… those sherpa skills I was boasting about? They don’t stand up all that well on the endurance test. I was sweating and cursing by the time we wrestled everything outside and all the way around to the taxi stand. So guess whether my mood was improved when all the taxis refused to take us because the venue was too close to the station!? It was close. Very very close, in a car. Walking, with a herculean load of gear and merch and personal bullshit (you can bet I was wishing I’d trimmed the contents of my suitcase down), it was manageable but just. I had flashbacks of the last time we were in London, hucking our stuff around on the tube system. Next time we tour I’m installing wheels on my bass case! JB doesn’t believe me, but I’m serious about this. Luckily we were received at the venue, the Bitterzoet, by the extremely friendly and helpful and hospitable owner, Stuart, and his old pooch Syl. We immediately installed ourselves on the comfy leather couches in the band room and devoured several sandwiches. Phew!!!

A few hours later we heard familiar voices on the stairs and in burst our beloved Timber Timbre. It was really great to be reunited with our old pals. The show that night was really fun… it felt good to play in a bar again (this may sound weird, because we’ve been raving about the big theatres on this tour, but it was kind of like slipping on an old pair of shoes after you’ve been wearing fancy heels for a few hours). We met a lot of nice people, including Geordie and ? – some friends of our friends Laura & Colin, who tipped them off about the show – but it turned out they were already planning to come and see TT anyway! After the show we all went out to find frites and mayo (yummm) and walked through a bit of a suburb of the red light district… this is a bit of a strange experience for those of us who come from a place where the sex trade is illegal. I think we all had mixed feelings about it.

The following day it was time to head out for the ferry crossing to the UK. This was an all-day affair… drive to Calais, go through customs (process our visas, which takes extra time), drive onto the ferry, get out of the van, eat mushy peas (or in my case, fish & chips), kill some time, get back in the van, drive from Dover to London, find the hotel (way out in Shepherd’s Bush), get some pounds instead of euros, realize how expensive everything is in the UK…. etc. But it was all worth it in the end because the following night’s show at Union Chapel was my favourite so far. You’ll have to wait for Jonas’ post to see photos of the venue. He’s got some stunners I’m sure. For now you’ll just have to trust me that this place is beautiful. It’s in a square layout as opposed to the long shape of many (most) churches, with balconies on three sides – perfect for concerts. The whole thing is red brick, including the interior, which I’ve never seen before. And the sound! The sound! Singing into that space is an exhilarating feeling. The church was packed for the show, and we had so much fun. Mika played on 3 songs with us and having her there made the show so extra special. Lots of nice people there.

This is a layout showing all the pew that folds into a box on the wall in our band room. There are holes in all the places for pegs. I want to know what this is used for!

This room was the Sunday School, and I sneaked in to do a vocal warmup... I felt like I was a ghost and I was haunting this chapel.

That night we sat around Taylor’s hotel room for a while just laughing our heads off at Simon. What a clown. It was great to see those guys!

Simon looks like a cop. But definitely "good cop." I guess that makes Taylor "bad cop."

Taylor & Simon are wearing mustaches to raise money for prostate cancer this “Movember.” (And because it looks so smooth.) You can sponsor them here!

The next day was a repeat of the ferry crossing day in reverse. Too much time in the van for anyone’s liking, and I’d already finished my book on the way over, but luckily Mika lent me her iPod with the original Batman movie on it so I was easily entertained. They dropped us off in Paris just outside Le Casino de Paris where Agnes and the gang were performing at the Inrocks festival. JB quickly located the ever helpful Guillaume, and we got our stuff stashed inside relatively quickly and then it was goodbye to Timber Timbre for another few days until we meet again in Strasbourg tomorrow.

We grabbed a nice little dinner at a tiny Italian hole in the wall near the theatre, then found our seats and settled in to enjoy watching Agnes, Gill, and Anne dazzle the huge crowd. It was nice to be able to watch their whole set without having to dash back to the merch table before the encore. Then we were backstage reunited with our friends and all trying to catch up on what we’d missed on our days apart in between sips of white wine in the tiny red-velvet lined production office. It felt good to be back with these guys. Agnes and Gill tried to pawn off a bottle of nasty sweet-smelling stripper perfume on me (they’d been given a bottle by the un-named sponsors of the night’s event) but I wisely turned it down (probably for the good of the whole bus). We finally clambered back onto the good old Klaus-mobile and the familiar late-night shit-shooting session over beers in the front lounge. I was the first to crawl off to my bunk and I slept very soundly, waking up this morning in overcast Caen.

We spent all day inside the venue so I can’t say what Caen is like. We had lots of catching up to do with accounting, blogging, showering, and sleeping in. Not to mention JB was in dire need of a haircut! I took care of it, finally, and I think he looks awfully handsome with the new ‘do. Tonight’s show was a real winner. I had a great time and so did Jonas, and hopefully so did the audience. Feeling happy and relaxed (I just finished a very late dinner).

new haircut: so handsome!

Tomorrow we’ll be dropped at the Paris airport bright and early (try 6 am) to pick up our rental car and head to Strasbourg to meet up once again with the TT crew. This part of the tour is pretty confusing… lots of back and forth between our two touring buddy bands and some weird logistics concerning rental cars and festivals etc. But we’ll get through, we always do, and I’ll report back when I can.

Xo,

S.

By Sylvie.

Hi Everyone! Well, there is quite a lot of ground to cover since I last contributed to ye olde blogg.  Luckily Jonas is really good at taking lots of pictures of all the beautiful scenery we get to see, because I am terrible at it.  I just look at it and forget that later I’ll want to talk about it, and that photographic evidence is helpful for that. Besides, JB has a better camera! In any case, we’ve been having a great time and definitely living it up.  Here are Jonas and our incredible tour manager, Guillaume, chilling on the bus.

JB DJing for the post-show bus crowd

In this photo you can kind of see a bit what the bus is like on the inside… small but surprisingly cozy.  You can also see the wine & kronenburgs on the go, you can see that we can play tunes, and if you’re a real sleuth, you can see how late we stay up.  We keep doing it!  No matter our good intentions to get our beauty rest, we are just having too much fun.  By the way, Guillaume deserves a special mention because he is the best.  You’ve never met a man so quick with a maglite.
When we finally do tuck in, it’s even cozier.  JB posted a photo of me in my bunk and said I was playing flight control (which, by the way, if you don’t have that app you should get it).  That wasn’t accurate because what I was really doing was taking this:

Caravaggiesque!

I believe it was in Vannes where JB managed to get his hands on Gill’s harp.  He’s been eyeing it all tour, and I think he was pretty excited when she let him have a go. First she explained a bit about the workings of the harp, and how she can change the tuning of each string using the little levers along the top.  Then she played us all a few jigs.  A jig on a harp is much more elegant than a jig of any other kind I think.  What an amazing instrument!

A private recital

But JB really got his druid on when he tried his hand at a little plucking of his own:

Druid in training

Real druid

I guess we’ve were feeling quite medieval because the next day, in Angers, we got to see this suuuper cool castle!  They’ve just got it sitting there in their downtown like it ain’t no thing. Obviously everyone took a million pictures.

Capturing the castle

The place was amazing.  I mean I don’t know at what point in history they created the insane french manicured gardens within the moat and inside the castle grounds, but even those are probably older than most of the stuff I’m used to seeing.

Manicured moat

This thing is OLD.  And it’s gorgeous.  The view is incredible.  It was a beautiful sunny day and we all just traipsed around the ramparts taking photos.

There is actually a miniature forest growing inside the castle walls (which seems crazy to me because the castle itself is built up so high… anyway they manage it somehow.  This tree had a face:

(for my Dad)

And then there’s the gigantic Apocalypse Tapestry.  It’s sooo crazy.  Gill and I went through reading all of the captions.  We could barely follow any of it because we have very little biblical knowledge, but basically all sorts of crazy shit is supposed to go down when the apocalypse happens, and I do not want to be around for it.  Photos were prohibited but JB broke the rules and posted a sweet photo of the scourge of death in his recent post, if you’re interested. Then we walked around a bunch more:

JB and I take all the same photos! OH NO

Yeah we played this place. Like, uh, what!?

So obviously all sorts of stuff happens in between the sightseeing.  For example, eating.  We eat VERY well.  And also soundchecking, and other things that are much less interesting.  I’ll try to talk a little about normal daily stuff as well, but mostly the standout things so it doesn’t get boring.  Here’s one of the normal daily things… merch!  Every night somewhere in between soundcheck and showtime we find the merch table and lay out our wares.  Thanks to our manager, Christoph, it’s turned into quite the spread…. what with our cute little mailing list typewriter, and our massive silk-screened posters, it’s getting maybe a bit out of hand?

our wares

Usually pre-show we spend a bit of time in the dressing room getting ready for the show.  Apparently this is Jonas’ new routine:

JB's new moves

Well after a slew of very excellent shows, we now have a few days off in Paris.  Our friend Marine’s brother has graciously given us his apartment in Belleville.  The first day we totally slobbed it up, lying around the flat doing not a heck of a lot.  But we found a great restaurant around the corner and enjoyed people watching a bit (especially the waiters who were moving at hyper speed – slicing baguettes, racing around with plates, and only pausing to smoke half a cigarette in the doorway to the crowded patio, or devour a few bites of potato or an egg in the kitchen to refuel).  And yesterday morning I went and checked out the huge street market that was taking place on the main drag nearby.  This market ran for about 4 blocks and was loud, bustling, and really fun.  I was really wishing I actually had groceries to buy because it would have been nice to pick some things up.  They had stalls selling everything from fruit & veg, to clothing, olives, meat and fish, spices, and nailpolish.  You get yelled at by a lot of sellers trying to get your attention but I just floated through trying to be invisible.  I loooove markets.

mega market

Later JB and I wandered around.  A LOT.  We sort of had it in mind to go shopping, and had an exceedingly vague description of a neighbourhood to try which Agnes recommended.  We headed in that general direction but of course didn’t find the shops we were looking for.  Luckily walking around anywhere in Paris is basically a treat, so we just let our noses guide us and ambled aimlessly.  We found all kinds of lovely pedestrian-friendly neighbourhoods.  Eventually I was exhausted and we had to stop for a coffee.  Oh! Wait, sir, I forgot to ask for it with milk.  Damn.  Can’t get used to the way they serve the coffee here (tiny and black) but I’ll learn.  The thing we really need to learn is how on earth to properly leave a restaurant.  Every time we eat or drink somewhere (in France) we struggle with trying to get out of the damn place.  Just let us pay!  They don’t bring the bill unless you ask, and for the longest time we didn’t know the word for “bill” – we now know its “addition.”  But first, in order to ask for said bill, you have to get the waiter’s attention, and damned if we can successfully flag ‘em down…

bonjour monsieur

And then we did find a really awesome vintage store in which I was completely overwhelmed by the massive selection, the heat, and the techno, but JB managed to find some warm leather gloves. A little murderer-esque perhaps but heck.

JB trying on coats. this one too big but would have been perfect!

I was the mule.

Shortly after that photo I was informed that you aren’t supposed to take photos inside the store… whoops!  Heheh too late.  So we just kept walking.  Eventually we stumbled upon this beaut:

ooooh, aaahhhh

And relaxed for a moment in the sun, watching two little boys kick a red ball back and forth across the square.  Life rules.

And now I must rush off because JB is about to DJ Pitchfork fest!  This is going to be so much fun because I’m excited for all of the bands and because I don’t know what Jonas will toss off his iPod and I’m curious to see how it goes over with the French.  Not to mention we get to see Franc from Magicrpm once again.  And as if today wasn’t enough, tomorrow we get to take the train to Amsterdam to be reunited with our good pals Timber Timbre.  Yay! So exciting!  I promise to report back soon.
Xo, S.

Slackin’….

Well I have a lot of work to do. I should really try and blog each day as to not fall so far behind. I really thought that the bus would’ve made for an easier blog life but instead what happens is we finish each show, take what’s left of our rider (beer/wine) and stay up on the bus till 4am shooting the breeze and talking about life. Each night we become better friends and the conversations become even better and so now it’s a must that each night we stay up late. Sorry folks. It’s just how it is…. Then we hit our bunks and when we wake up we’re in a town with the sea or a castle or something totally great to go visit and we do. Then it’s lunch/dinner/soundcheck/performance/wine/beer/bus/chat/etc. So I’ll recap our last few days and then Sylvie will tell her version, from the Lady’s Angle.

So we were last in Brest with you, on the sea, at a Moroccan restaurant if I remember correctly… The next morning we woke to torrential rains. We were picked up from our cute little hotel and driven to the venue by Yannick, a dear gent, who told us that it’s almost always sunny in Brest and that they have a saying that “it only rains on assholes in Brest”. Thanks Yannick!

This night was amazing. They had over 1000 tickets sold before the day of the show! That was the biggest crowd I think Evening Hymns has ever played to indoors. Pretty awesome feeling. Here’s a shot of the crowd:

freaky deaky!

Sylvie in her bunk at night playing Flight Control probably.

Not to sound too redundant but man are we ever lucky to be on this tour. Playing to these huge silent audiences in these perfect rooms with professional sound crews and amazing catering and each night sharing this experience with our new friends Agnes and her crew. It’s a really special feeling. Fall asleep in Brest. Wake up in Vannes.

When we finally lift our heads off the pillow and look outside we’re in Vannes. An amazingly beautiful little city. Just over 50000 people here. Very boutique-y feel to it. Tucked in by the sea. Nice shops. Beautiful people. We walked around for an hour before we had to soundcheck. Our engineer that night, Arnaud, was amazing. Such a talented and gentle person to have behind the board for our set. It’s an interesting setup because Agnes Obel have their own sound guy, Andy, from Scotland, who is quickly becoming a good friend of Hymns. They set up and check for a couple hours and then we use the house technician for our set. Each night we have a different sound guy and it’s cool to see how they approach mixing our set each night. They are all so keen to make it great on their end. Such a nice feeling. I’ve spoke in the past blogs about the level of quality you get over here in techs. It’s totally amazing! Anyways, Arnaud was no exception. A top class engineer! Extra credit to him for helping me translate the dinner menu!  Here’s the venue from the nosebleeds:

Here are some photos from the town:

I didn’t take many photos in Vannes. Not sure why. It was so pretty! One thing that really stood out for me though is when we left the venue to go for dinner before the show we drove in a couple cars to get to the restaurant and it was raining pretty hard, and let up just before we got to our destination. We all walked as a big group to the restaurant, over the cobblestone streets and the rain was running in  little streams everywhere and the smell of woodsmoke hung in the air and it cleared my head and made me feel so nostalgic. A cool evening, after the rain had stopped and the world felt crisp and clear. And that smoke…. It was a very happy moment for me. And then I had an awesome pasta dinner with NO MEAT, CHEESE, or FISH!!!! WIN!

Another cool thing about Euro shows is the sound and light techs, and people from the venue all eat together with the band. And with our bus driver Klaus too! FAMILY!

Stayed up late. Got up late in….. ANGERS!

Again, another beauty town. Very picturesque. We went as  team to explore the castle, which is gigantic, beautiful and also houses the Apocalypse Tapestry which is the largest tapestry in the world. http://sourcebook.fsc.edu/history/apocalypse.html

the girls skip down the street to the castle.

we follow…

chateau D’angers

family

manicured grounds

tourists.

apocalypse that way… sure why not…?

cool!!!

noted, supposedly, for it’s asymmetrical gable…

Afterwards Sylvie and I wandered to the old cathedral and happened upon this spectacular pulpit… one of the most impressive ones I’ve seen on my travels.

incredible!

A few more shots of the town:

the oldest house in Angers, Maison D’Adam.

A nice full day walking around and a great night in the theatre. I really enjoyed Angers. Hope to get back there. Here’s a picture of the inside of the theatre:

The Phantom of the Opera

People lined up to get in…

photo credit: Anne

Well that’s it for now folks. We slept. We awoke (in Paris) and now Sylvie and I are taking a lazy day off. Met up with our dear friend Marine, who had her cellphone stolen this morning so we couldn’t reach her and we were late but so was she because she lost her phone and all this complicating business, blah, blah. Sucks. But at least we’re back on track now and just going to relax for a couple days. Do some sightseeing. Sylvie wants to shop. Rest, rest, rest!

Thanks for reading. Chat soon!

xo jb

By Sylvie.

Hi Everyone!  You missed me, didn’t you…?  Well never fear, here I am again to regale you with adventure tales.  Jonas did a pretty good job of bringing you up to date.  In Poitiers we walked around and got our fill of lovely French architecture and super old churches (we will always seek out the oldest stuff we can find.  Canada is a real baby compared to old mother Europa, and we are truly in awe when presented with centuries-old architecture).

Jonas "in awe"

The next place was La Roche sur Yon, where I attempted some shoe shopping.  The town was mostly deserted, but apparently everyone was in the shoe store, which was packed, so I decided to pass on browsing for fancy footwear.  The post office there is absolutely gorgeous, and other things of note include:  little skateboarder boys, and roving packs of young motorbikers, who are possibly enemies, as perhaps evidenced by the laughter of the skater boys when one of the motorbikers bailed in the park.

The show that night was lovely!  I mostly stared up into the smoky lights above me, so it probably looked like I was singing to one special person in the balcony.

From the wings: Jonas rocking Mountain Song!

After the show me and JB ran out to get some dinner before the audience let out.  He managed to negotiate some kind of salad & fries combo (narrowly avoiding a reenactment of the pile of unseasoned steamed veggies he’d been given for lunch).  I, however, got down to a massive hunk of charred and bleeding steak, preceded by an elaborate caesar salad with chicken, whole anchovies, and huge shards of shaved parmesan.  It was beginning to look dire when we realized we had to leave the restaurant within ten minutes in order to be back at the venue in time and our entrees had yet to arrive.  Thankfully I had the presence of mind to request our desserts to go, and we bolted our meals and ran back just in time to hawk our wares to the masses.

The following day (yesterday) was a day off in Brest – a port town on the North West coast of France.

Overlooking the sea

Appropriately, JB and I spent the day eating and napping, alternating these with bouts of watching French TV and sending emails.  We were awfully tired (and, if we’re totally honest, a bit hungover… check out JB’s hilarious one-sock look!)

He could only find one sock this morning! What a scrub...

At lunch, I tried to order a green salad but I mixed up my translation and ended up with the following:

HUGE slabs of liver paté! THE WORST.

F.Y.I, I hate liver.

BUT we did manage to get out and see some of the sights.  95% of Brest was destroyed in the 2nd world war by the allies (Germany was squatting in the harbour with its U-boats).  However, there remains a gorgeous old castle (some of the walls are Roman-built, from the 5th century!) and a very pretty and fairy-tale-esque tower:

look at these cute little flowers! they grow in cracks and crevices and look like tiny sea daises.

what is wrong with this picture? aww you're so cute, little french sign. thanks for looking out for my safety on the insanely blustery cliff's edge. i know what you meant.

And in a park on this same blustery cliff’s edge, overlooking the port, I climbed into a tree and had a real zen moment all to myself.  It was so very peaceful up in my strange semi-pine, semi-bansai looking tree (shaped like a deciduous but with giant pine cones and dark green needles.. so weird but I liked them a lot).

The view from my Tree.

Then JB came and coaxed me down (something about falling out and smashing my head) and we were on our merry way.  We had earlier spied a little Moroccan joint boasting on its menu a vegetarian tagine, so we headed there for dinner.  The owner ushered us in with a handshake and within moments we were enjoying piping hot veg tagine (stew) and couscous, along with a tasty vin rouge de Maroc.  This food was so perfect for a cold, windy night.  Not to mention it provided a welcome respite from what generally passes for “vegetarian” here in France.  A huge steaming bowl of delicious hearty veggies… no mountains of cheese (in fact no dairy at all), no secret hidden meat, no bread.  Phew!

Tagine! YUM!

My delicious dessert: Vanilla ice cream, chantilly cream, toasted almonds, honey, and dates. MMmmm JB was so jealous!

Hello, Mr. Camel...

Today it rained and rained so we’ve been mostly bumming around indoors.  The venue is great, we’ve got laundry on the go (thank goodness as I was about to run out of clean undies!).  Sound check begins shortly and we’re looking forward to playing.  Thanks for hanging in there, dearest blog readers!  More babbling from the J-meister and myself to follow (when next we get some chill time and some wifi).
xo
SS.

And so I left you in Poitiers. Sylvie and I went for a wander to see some sights around town. Found this beautiful river:

While we were standing on this bridge to take the photo an old car drove by and backfired about 10 ft. away from us and scared the shit out of us. I thought I was being shot at…

We also found these:

It wasn’t open but we took a picture infront of the 2nd oldest church in France.

And happened upon this place too:

An artisan umbrella maker!!!! Cool shop. Wish we had the money to buy one. They were beauty.

Okay enough tourist shots… We are at work over here I swear. The venue, as seen in the last blog post, was spectacular. Unfortunately we weren’t allowed to play in the big room as no amplifiers are allowed! They are so strict about it. The room is perfectly tuned for acoustic instruments and they take that very serious. They have multiple spaces within this incredible Poitiers complex and they set us up in the restaurant upstairs. Certainly not as exciting as playing in the big theatre but fun nonetheless…. Still got to play to a really big audience and also to try out a new song for the first time. Post show drinks in the cafeteria and then off to the bus to sleep.

When we woke up we were in La Roche Sur Yon. An even smaller town then Poitiers. We ate some snacks and then went for a quick camera jaunt around town:

As the photos show it was a beautiful day for wandering around. Nice, quaint little place…

Had one of those weird food moments where we get free lunch and dinner at the same restaurant, provided by the booker, but they had no vegetarian options on the menu, except for a plate of tomatoes with some lettuce. Hahaha… oh France. Anyways, that’s what I had but convinced them to add fries to the dinner portion. Lucky me!  Sylvie had some fancy foods. Salmon and steak. Lets just see if she blogs about it. Saw this cute shop beside the restaurant and liked the way the sign looked:

We’ve been graced with really nice, big dressing rooms on this run that normally provide us a shower, washroom, etc. Nice to have that quiet space before the show to get cleaned up and collect the thoughts. Had a pre-show shower and it was great. Played this beautiful, huge concert hall. Great lighting and sound. Spoiled, like every night. I think this show was sold out too. It’s a treat to walk out on stage each night with these massive crowds that are so attentive and welcoming. It really helps to calm the nerves and this tour has been less stressful than most because of it. Here are a couple of the staff cleaning up after the show:

Just a cavernous room. Steep seats and a big balcony. Beautiful room. We played a good set I think and then stayed up too late with the Obel Team sipping jaspers and shooting the breeze.

Had too many beers and stayed up too late. When the bus stopped this morning we were in Brest, with a day off. Sylvie and I were dropped at our hotel and set out to wander the city. Our daily findings:

The Australian swimmer, Thorpedo.

The Sea

Thought this would like a classic iPhone photo and alas…

So the Germans had a U-boat base in harbour here which was eventually recaptured and the French dug up these ol’ subs and put them back in service for themselves. They kept 4 of them and used them for years. And if I remember the plaque correctly they were sent on over 500 missions… Supposedly these were pretty sweet subs. Hard to believe two troops would be in those things for 7-8 days. Crazy!

Pont de Recouvrance

The coolest thing about this bridge was the ambient sound coming off of it. The wind was blowing so hard that it created this beautiful hum from some part of the bridge. It was amazing! I tried to record it but it didn’t capture the sound as I wanted.

Sylvie defying gravity in a tree. I warned her that if she wasn’t careful she’d fall out and risk serious injury. An injury such as this one, that this poor bird succumbed to:

Anyways… that’s about it for our day off. We ate at a great Moroccan restaurant right near the sea. It was delicious. So nice to have couscous and tagine and all those vegetables. We needed that. Okay. This entry took me 1.5 hours to put together. It’s a time consuming process uploading the photos and sorting out things. Hope you enjoyed. We have all day in Brest again tomorrow and then a show tomorrow night. Can’t wait to play. It’s another gorgeous venue!!! Woohoo! zzzzzzz

Be well…jb