Amazing Grace

Since we are feeling more settled in our house, we are now starting to branch out and get more involved in our community. We met a nice woman, Heidi, who has provided many suggestions and ideas about things to do in and around Eygalieres…including a printing class at the local museum for the girls, a harp concert in Arles and a local beekeeper who sells honey to the people of the village. On Monday, she invited Bucky and me to join her at the Salle des Fetes (the local meeting hall) for her gospel choir practice. Bucky and I didn’t know what to expect, but decided to go just to see what the deal was and to make an effort to “get out there.” Well, it was really “out there” – that’s for sure! Singing American gospel music (think Kumbaya and Amazing Grace) with a group of middle aged French people in a small Provence village was quite an experience.

About 20 people from the village were there in addition to the teacher, Erich, who comes from a nearby town, Isle Sur La Sorgue. Erich is a talented singer who manages three other gospel choirs throughout Provence, as well as, owns a tea room in his town. The group was really friendly and welcomed us with open arms. Neither Bucky nor I is known for our singing voices, but Heidi had assured us that as long as we sang with enthusiasm, we would do fine. Hearing these French people sing this wonderful music in such an unexpected situation was certainly motivating and we both sang with huge smiles and plenty of enthusiasm. Erich assessed our singing voices (scary!) and determined that Bucky is a tenor and I am an alto.

We easily melded into our appropriate groups and sang! We may not have the voices, but we certainly have the benefit of knowing the words and being familiar with the songs, so we were able to actively participate. At the end of the practice, many people said they were happy that we had joined them and they hoped we would come back. We thanked them for making us feel welcome and told them that we hoped to return. On our walk home, Bucky and I talked about the evening. One of Bucky’s favorite French words is “bizarre” which (as you can probably guess) means strange, weird, or odd. Bucky said that he had been thinking “tres bizarre” the entire time. We agreed that it had been a bizarre, yet extremely enjoyable evening. We never would have guessed that we would be joining a gospel choir after moving to this small town in France, but we are excited to embrace all of the experiences that are available to us during this adventure. Amazing grace - how sweet it is!