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« Bulles de chant »
Au Palais Bulles
Recital
of Gérard Chambre
directed and performed by
Gérard Chambre
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It is about letting the public rediscover,
during an informal evening, the great French
songs, the unforgettable
ones…
Those who are for ever kept in our memories,
through our souvenirs, our loves, our dreams...And
why not, sing them together? New
songs, former songs, beautiful songs which
we share ... under
the open sky,
as easy as that...How? The
audience will receive at
the entrance a small brochure with the most
popular songs,
that they
can sing ... if they want to... if it
is their song: « Y a d’la Joie », « revoir
Paris », « Avec le temps », « Bruxelles », «
Les grands boulevards », « La Bohème »
...enjoy listening to a
song - enjoy singing it.... (translated from
Gérard Chambre's original French text)
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To all
fans of Gérard Chambre who is best
known as Chevalier Jean Poton de
Xaintrailles, in the
Catherine, il suffit d'un amour
TV-Series, the best friend of Arnaud
and Catherine de Montsalvy, one of the chief
captains of Jeanne d'Arc and close comrade
of La Hire.
text by Mistral/Linda 2009
As some of you might know, last month I
received an email from
Gérard Chambre in which he wrote about his latest
endeavours – his new musical creation
called Le petit groom de chez
Maxim's,
with music written by Jacques Offenbach,
and a
Recital of French chansons
at the
8th International Festival of Palais
Bulles, Théâtre Pierre Cardin
in
Théoule-sur-Mer.
Seeing the flyers during my July holiday
in
Italy,
the thought crossed my mind... how
marvellous would it be to go and see at
least one of the performances with
Gérard Chambre? At
Lacoste
with that ancient castle? Or even
Théoule-sur-Mer
on the Côte d'Azur?
Back home in Switzerland, the vision of
going to France to see one of the
performances stayed with me. That
famous little voice we all have inside
us kept telling me, Yes! Just visualize
it! And how I did! Meeting one of the
main stars of the TV-Series Catherine
for the first time? But going to
Cannes
with my
family, and finding a hotel in the high
season with all of France and the rest
of Europe on the road? No way...."rien
ne va plus". That is, until
last Thursday 6 August, when all of a
sudden - my imaginary fairy godmother
wanted to know how flexible Mistral
really is!
Voilà – on
Friday morning we jumped in our car (sorry
no Ferrari, but a nice French Renault!)
with destination Nice (Nizza). The
journey went well except for a few minor
hiccups, such as my cellphone not
working, and being unable to find our
agreed meeting place. After a couple of
hours and a husband getting slightly
nervous (nooooo it wasn't me, I can read
maps, can't I?), we finally arrived at
the most beautiful house I have ever
seen, and with a view looking down to
the Mediterranean - Nice,
Cannes and as far as
Théoule-sur-Mer!
I must not forget to mention our hostess,
a wonderfully adorable lady who was
quite amused when she learned of the
purpose of my trip - and immediately
began to support us in word and deed! A
grand Dame with a big gracious heart to
whom I would like to say thank you again
for all her encouragement and humour!
Saturday, 8 August 2009 and we are on
our way to Théoule-sur-Mer. It is
now around five hours before the
concert, and I am equipped with my
camera and the flyer I was sent by
Monsieur Gérard himself. So far so
good. However, we just couldn't find
Théoule-sur-Mer!
We got lost in a place I shall never
forget called
Mandelieu
near Cannes. Embarrassing, I
admit it openly, but thankfully the
French are helpful people who speak
English very well and won't let you down
if you are in trouble!
Thus we finally arrived... only to find
out that we had no clue where the bus
was leaving from, and time was already
short. We made it to the Office de
Tourisme and were handed a
map
to find the
parking spot!
Why was this trip so chaotic? It was
summer on the Côte d'Azur!
At long last there
was time to relax in a lovely
restaurant. We sipped delicious French
white wine, enjoying the beautiful view
and watching the swimmers in the water.
With an eye on the clock, we waved to
the garçon to pay our bill. He smiled
and we waited. He kept smiling and we
kept waiting... I envisaged my husband
sporting a
Gandalf beard by this time. I
couldn't let this happen after promising
my website visitors a surprise!
We had to run up a hill and arrived out
of breath to secure the last two seats
left on the bus. I sat down next to a
charming young woman who told me she'd
seen Gérard Chambre two years
ago, that he was brilliant and she could
not wait to hear him perform again. I'd
only seen him on television and cinema
and heard him singing in a YouTube
video, and couldn't wait to see him
perform live. Soon we entered
Monsieur Pierre Cardin's
Palais Bulles. You should have seen
this place - absolutely breathtaking!
It looked like a modern
amphitheatre
and
the
view from our seats in the fourth
row was incredible.
The announcer introduced Gérard
Chambre and the musicians, and the
star of the evening came on stage
looking most handsome in his white
shirt. He said he was very happy to be
here tonight and thanked
Monsieur Pierre Cardin the producer
of the show, at which point we all
turned around and saw this very elegant,
unique and world famous couturier
sitting with us in the audience!
The show began. I will try to describe
to you how it was, how it felt, to have
the priviliege to listen to Gérard
Chambre sing. The sky darkened, and the
moon and stars appeared from nowhere,
and Gérard sang the most ravishingly
beautiful songs – love songs, ballads
and poetry performed so divinely that
the audience were spellbound – splendid
chansons that we knew from Charles
Aznavour, Yves Montand,
Charles Trenet – and also some that
Gérard had written himself! Ah...
he was marvellous! Sublime! I have
never seen Yves Montand,
Charles Aznavour or any of the
others live... but I can tell you, this
performer had his audience enchanted.
We'd all been given a
brochure with the lyrics of some of
the songs. Gérard asked the
audience to sing along with him! There
are no words to tell you how awesome
that was, and when we later sang with
him "C'est si bon" ,"La Mer"
or "For me, Formidable" (to
mention a few of these so popular
alluring French songs) we were under a
magic spell, cast by Gérard Chambre
and his band.
Near the end of the soirée a beautiful
Asian artist appeared on stage with a
huge transparent balloon and started to
dance... then she vanished into the
balloon, let down her long silken black
hair, undressed and wrote with a pen "Save
the Children of this world"... and
then dressed herself again and came out
with her hair up again! This final
presentation complemented many of the
songs which were rather contemplative,
in a exquisite way.
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And so the time came to introduce myself
to Gérard Chambre. Politely, I
waited for my turn, holding on to my
flyer and pen. With what I hoped was a
calm voice, I held my hand out and said:
"Hello Monsieur Gérard, it's me –
Mistral"! He turned around, searched his
memory and then he recognized me. With a
surprised, yet joyful expression he held
my glance. And before I knew what
happened he hugged me and kissed my
cheeks. Oh là là!
We chatted for a while before I asked
him to sign my
flyer. I stood there smiling and
watching him signing the now precious
piece. Despite being a celebrity, an
attractive, charming and well-known
star, he is very conscious of the
environment. A real gentleman, who was
delighted that a fan came all the way to
France to listen to his songs and
message!
My husband then stepped down and took a
picture of the two of us. So there I was
posing with Xaintrailles/Jason/Gérard
- but as life would have it, this was
the only picture that did not turn out
well. Nevertheless, I had all the
beautiful memories of an unforgettable
evening.
I would like to thank Gérard and his
band (Mika Apamian, Jacques Deville,
Thierry Jan, Yorfella) for their
outstanding performance and him
personally for his kindness towards me
and my website.
Along with all the pictures of this
wonderful evening, I have included the
autograph for you to enjoy as well.
The dedication is a bit longer than what
you can see, and I hope you can forgive
me that I cherish some personal words
for only myself
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photos © Linda
Compagnoni Walther
August 8, 2009
Théoule-sur-Mer, France
© 2008 -
2024 linda compagnoni walther
non profit site
All rights reserved
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