Day 22: Paris
Welcome
Yesterday we performed on a barge in the Seine River, in Paris, France.
We had agreed on a 9.30am lobby call to allow plenty of time for traffic complications in Paris, so at 9am sharp I was down in the restaurant of our Ibis Styles, allowing plenty of time for any breakfast complications that might arise. I allowed myself three of the tiny square plates this time and served the first with a pair of cold crepes dressed with maple syrup. My next plate featured a trio of pastries: a pain au chocolat, a pain aux raisins, and a croissant. Below this I had a duo of oranges, both the blood and the regular varieties, bathed in yoghurt. Finally, on my last plate I enjoyed a section of baguette, sliced laterally, some brown bread, a piece of cheese, some butter, and an open-air egg.
One of the impressive toll plazas on the route to Paris.
The drive to Paris took us along the Autoroute A11, L’Océane, the 343km highway that extends southwest from the nation’s capital city to the Bay of Biscay, and the Atlantic Ocean. Traffic was lighter than expected and an hour ahead of schedule we were alongside the Seine, at a stretch of the river where there were a great many vessels moored and most of them with decks full of tables of Parisians lunching. A tiny guardhouse stood at the access point to our venue, and manning this important outpost was a very strict security guard who was not happy about our arrival, especially since our names weren’t printed on his piece of paper - a handy prop which he enjoyed gesturing at as he argued with Mathias. After about ten minutes we were able to get the promoter on the phone and he convinced the guard to lower the bollards and allow us to continue.
We descended a shallow driveway which took us down to the riverbank, right next to Petit Bain, a concert venue housed in a rectangular concrete barge, permanently moored at this spot on the Seine. The barge is floating – you can certainly feel it when you are aboard – but apparently it also has legs on the bottom, so we felt confident that it wouldn’t completely sink.
Load-in was across a long gangplank, and then down a flight of stairs, and we ended up in the dark belly of this craft, where there was a small stage facing a long room with a low and uneven ceiling. The backstage was a small cabin on the starboard side of the vessel, and although it didn’t offer much in the way of creature comforts, a porthole afforded a view of the river traffic from our little spot just above the waterline. All the technicians at Petit Bain were very helpful and we achieved good results during soundcheck. It was slightly unnerving that the lighting truss was constantly in motion, jostled around by all the passing boat wakes, but we soon were used to it and we enjoyed the spectacular disco buoy that hung above the dance floor; a real buoy, swore the venue sound engineer.
Jonathan has been plagued by a technical issue for the last few shows and last night he was able to secure enough time and equipment to carry out a very satisfying repair. He has a footpedal switcher that remotely controls his Eventide H-90 (a very nice sound effects pedal) and this switcher broke, and we had been unable to find a replacement after several days of searching. With a multimeter in one hand and soldering iron in the other, Jonathan confined himself to the venue’s workshop, a tiny room that doubled as the alcohol storeroom, and he pulled up the circuit diagram of his switcher pedal, painstakingly troubleshooting every part of the circuit until he had it figured out.
The evening weather was well suited for sight-seeing, so I headed out for a run after soundcheck. I began along the river path towards the city centre, a busy route as there were many locals and tourists out enjoying their proximity to the water, as well as plenty of cyclists and other joggers out chasing their endorphins. I passed the Île de la Cité, home of the famous Notre-Dame Cathedral, which of course was heavily damaged by a fire in 2020 and is currently covered in scaffolding and surrounded by cranes participating in its restoration.
I crossed over the Seine on Pont de Arts and proceeded into the massive courtyards of the Louvre Palace, home of the world’s most visited museum, Musée du Louvre. The scale and grandeur of this location is breath-taking, and it was only improved by the saxophone player busking in one of the entranceways, silhouetted against the museum’s entrance way, Ieoh Ming Pei’s glass and metal pyramid.
I passed these firemen who jumped into the water and began to climb this bridge.
I turned around at this point, heading back towards the venue and enjoying the sun that was basking the Seine’s northern bank. This return route did provide me with a superior vantage point for a bridge I had admired earlier, and I stopped for several minutes to watch the regular cadence of the trains of Métro Line 5 passing in each direction. The Austerlitz Viaduct is a steel arch bridge, completed in 1904, and is 11.3m tall and 140m long. Marine symbols such as fish, oars, anchors, and tridents decorate the sides of the structure, and at each end are two stone pillars, which function as abutments for the arch.
We enjoyed a meal before the show, dining outdoors at a restaurant adjacent to our venue. It had cooled a little; it was still warm but with a breeze, and the light had begun to soften. The bars and restaurants along the river were now teeming with beautifully dressed patrons. Summer in Europe is a thing to enjoy.
Lande kicked off the show again and played beautifully. She said she was surprised at how quiet and respectful the Paris audience was. Looking back, we have had some rowdy shows of our own in past visits to this city. Last night was lively, but not messy. They were a warm crowd and though few times there was some heavy movement from the first few rows, everyone felt like they were there to listen.
Lande Hekt.
Gabe is a man who likes order, and last night he created order on the gangplank, preparing the explicitly arranged pack train so we could quickly and efficiently load our equipment into the back of the van. Mathias brought our vehicle right down to the edge of the river and we stacked everything in neatly, as the sweet sounds of karaoke carried up from a boat downstream.
The pack train.
Our hotel was northeast of the city, and although we were all keen to rest, we had one more important task to complete before heading there. For completing this incredibly stressful piece of driving, boints were awarded.
Here is Tristan’s latest piece of video, covering our days in Nantes and Paris.