We got a nice little Fiat at Avis Friday morning, loaded up (barely room for everything) and headed south. Crossing the Marne River, we were astonished at how high the water levels were, and this was but two blocks from the Centre. We knew there was flooding in Paris (sort of) but never thought to look at our own river which then feeds into the Seine. But traffic was "red" on the active Google maps, so we had to keep on going. Traffic getting away from Paris was possible; traffic entering was stuck in ways I had not seen for a very long time.
The drive went well, and we never encountered any difficulties obtaining petrol, all the newspaper accounts notwithstanding. The French people repeat over and over, the media always makes things seem much worse than they are. We arrived in the tiny hamlet Argence, up the mountain from the village Habère-Poche. It was getting dark, so we could not see signs very well, and the GPS didn't exactly know where La Fontaine was, but we found the fountain and an elderly lady kindly pointed to the B&B from her front door. All was well.
The room was very nice. Instead of a headboard, pillows were hung from a rod at the right height. The old 18th-century stone walls were impressively thick and the cement was carefully re-pointed. The old wooden ceiling had been carefully refinished, keeping the original beams. The entire building was so well-built that I was reminded of the monastic buildings at Saint Pierre de Solesmes.
The church in which we sang had fantastic acoustics, which made it satisfying for singing and blending.
Michel had to set up and quickly tune the portative organ, which we used to supply a fifth vocal part (their bass can no longer sing with them).
We could see the church from the patio just outside our bedroom, and the bells were easily heard ringing throughout the valley.
This is another view, without a telephoto lens, showing the village and church.
Our wifi connection was off and on. In fact, to get any reception at all, guests needed to go to another building. But we were able (occasionally) to get and send email even though blogs failed.
All for now, with love from us both,
Evan
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