La palme académique

Florence is presented with a palm and a gold medal by German choir member Ingrid. She also awarded a diploma in the pronunciation of German to the whole choir and handed round precious chocolate gold medals to everyone. She was very diligent in correcting our pronunciation and decreed that we had made excellent progress.

Today's mise en place is relegated to extras (for the record, to remind me where we sang). We sang our last concert in a pretty, relatively modern church in Limoux -- the cosiest one yet. The church was full, which was very gratifying, even if it must have been partly because the Mairie paid for the concert and offered it for free. It was a good finale to the series -- the benefit of singing the programme five times in a short period is that we have got much more relaxed about the difficult bits, of which there are many. Of course we never sing all of it perfectly, but the mistakes were minor.  The audience was wildly enthusiastic too (also included ex choir director William).

We had a copious self-catered buffet afterwards, along with brief speeches. Then an hour's drive home ... and relax!