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Is Paris France  still the most Popular Travel Destination? 

What an enjoyable moment it is to receive, as the travel agent, notice that your customers were fully satisfied with the travel arrangements made for their trip. I’m delighted to introduce Eric Birk & Bernadette Hoke, who are both established concert artists (organ & piano) living in New York City. It gives me great pleasure to post the Travel Journal - Part One, of their first trip to Paris France.

Well, we finally got there…

After spending however many years playing French Music (organ and/or piano), and admiring French Art, Cooking, et al… we made it to Paris to celebrate Bernadette’s 50th Birthday. Starting on Friday, Nov. 2 with a meal to end all meals at L’Elysées du Vernet - Hotel Vernet that had us in gastronomic ecstasy with every bite, we had four days of beautiful autumn weather and fit in as much of the main sites of interest that we could. Friday– Shopping at Galeries Lafayette, where it’s Christmas early–just like at home, and general walking around the 8th arrondisement window-shopping and seeing “the Champs”– what must be the world’s widest street, the Champs Elysees (Elysian Fields in English). Very near our hotel was the Arc de Triomphe at the Charles deGaulle Ètoile.
[It was cloudy that day, so this picture is from Monday.]

Saturday — We hit the cobblestones still a bit jet-lagged and only a little hungry for petit-dejeuner (their first meal which barely translates to “breakfast” both linguistically and nutritionally) followed by treks to Notre Dame Cathedral, the Eiffel Tower and scouting out services to attend on Sunday in St. German-du-Pres (St. Sulpice). Notre Dame was magical (that’s where Bernadette sat down under the yellow leaves to take lunch in the upper right photo at the top of this message), and we have photos to prove it!– what else would explain why we couldn’t get one clear photo of the windows?

We wanted to make sure we got to church on Sunday at the right time, so we went by St. Sulpice (where Widor, Dupré, Grunewald, and now Daniel Roth and Sophie-Véronique Cauchefer-Choplin (Cauchefer-Choplin biography) have been the only titular organists since 1862!) and found that they are in the middle of major restoration. But it is still so awe-inspiring in person. Unlike many churches in Paris, this was not built in the gothic style, but was built with neo-classic arches and towers and does not have the dark windows, fitting for the church of the “holy sepulchre” (the empty tomb of Christ)! The light is like a misty presence from all of the windows. Just as we arrived the sun came out for the first time while we were in Paris! So we got the picture at the upper left of this message and this window. This window has three Delacroix murals (on either side and the ceiling) around it.

End of Day One - written by Eric Birk.

Part Two will be added  tomorrow, February 22.

We hope you’ll also enjoy the hyper-links provided, particularly the ones offering great moments with Daniel Roth and Sophie-Véronique Cauchefer-Choplin  at the magnificent Cavaille-Coll Organ.