I've never really been one to participate in things like "Throwback Thursday," "Flashback Friday," "Maritime Monday" (what?) or even use hashtags on Facebook, but today I couldn't resist. Besides, I love being nostalgic and thinking about things that happened in the past, whether we're talking 102 years in the past or simply five!
So what am I talking about? I posted about this back in 2011, but that was three years ago and I haven't really mentioned it blog-wise since then. Five years ago in 2009 I was fortunate enough to be invited to travel with my two dear friends, Sarah and Gloria, up to Québec for about three or so days to see our favorite singer, Bruno Pelletier, in concert for his Microphonium tour. The last time I talked about this trip was very brief, so let's delve further into memory lane!
It all started on May 1, 2009. Sarah remembers this as the birth of her cat, Mina, but that was the day I joined her forum for US Bruno Fans. I already kind of knew about her since back then Bruno's Facebook page was filled with pictures taken of him with his fans, and Sarah had been up to see him quite a bit, so I recognized her from those photos. By this time, I had been a fan of Bruno's for about seven months, since October of 2008, while she had been a fan for a lot longer. Sarah and I began talking quite a bit over MSN (ah, the good ol' days of MSN messenger) and I helped out with the big birthday scrapbook she planned for US Bruno Fans to do, which she presented to Bruno when she traveled up to QC with Gloria for a festival appearance on his birthday. (Little did I know at the time, but this was also when they got Bruno to sign a birthday card for me, my first ever autograph from him.) But I'm getting ahead of myself.
At some point between May 1 and August 7, Sarah threw me through a loop by inviting me to go to Québec with her when she went up in October. I was completely stunned beyond belief. By this time we'd only been talking for a couple months, if that, and now she was inviting someone she'd never met in person to go with her into another country? Of course I said "YES, PLEASE!!" despite the worries of people at my church that she and/or Gloria was an ax murderer.
I was seventeen at the time, but I would turn 18 a couple months prior to the trip, so there was no worry about that. The next few months seemed to positively drag, although they were punctuated by necessary arrangements, such as getting a state issued ID, which was needed to get a passport card, which was needed, of course, to get into Québec.
The plan was thus: my mother and I would meet Sarah at a halfway point between our houses in a hotel parking lot in Salem, VA, then Sarah and I would drive up to Brooklyn, NY and spend the night with Gloria at her place, and then the three of us would head up to Québec the next evening after Gloria got off work. Such was the plan, so it was. It was my first time in New York, not that we did much sight-seeing, but it was still cool (in my opinion) since Sarah had wanted to avoid going through Manhattan but couldn't because of a road closure. Snicker. Anyway.
We reached the ALT Hotel in Brossard, QC, a town just across the river from Montréal, at about one am in the early morning of the sixteenth of October. And then we crashed. The next morning we headed across the river St. Laurence into Montréal and then into Vieux-Montréal to visit la Basilique Notre-Dame. 'Twas cool, despite the fact that the only picture of me in there I look like I'm having a mugshot taken. After dinner that night we went back to the hotel to gussy up, and then it was off to Terrebonne for the show!
We were running a little late due to construction, so that put us all on edge. By the time we got there, Sarah had to let Gloria and me hurry into the theatre while she went and parked. We hurried in and then the ushers led us into the actual theatre. Let me remind you, gentle viewers, that at this time I had been studying French on my own for six months and spoke very, very, very little. Gloria was led to her seat by another usher and the other looked at me and said something in rapid French. I understood not a word. By this time the lights had been lowered, so she just kind of looked at me helplessly for a moment before leading me to my seat, which was on the left side three or four rows back, all the way against the wall. Sarah and Gloria were two rows ahead of me.
Just as I sat down in my seat, the music to Ma jalousie started and then, suddenly, there he was. Bruno jogged out onto the stage to the mic, greeted the crowd, and started singing, just like that. It took me a second. I stared at him, thinking, "Huh. That's Bruno." And then: "Oh, my God, that's Bruno." Let me tell you, gentle readers, I bawled. After a year of admiring him and loving his music, I was finally there and it was actually him in front of me. Not one of my proudest moments. I'm pretty sure the people next to me thought I was nuts.
Like I said, I didn't speak French at all at the time. Two more songs passed and then he started to introduce another one, picking up an acoustic guitar. He strummed a chord that sounded vaguely familiar. He mentioned "D'autres rives," which is the album title of my favorite song. Then he started the line, "Je veux partir loin de chez moi..." from my absolute favorite song of all time, the song Sarah said she didn't think he would sing. Then I cried some more. Two rows ahead of me I saw Sarah lean over and say something to Gloria; turns out she was saying she was surprised she didn't hear me scream. Me, too.
After the show, we waited near the stage and met Bruno's friend and then-background singer, Francesco Verrecchia, who was quite nice and totally awesome. See?
See? Totally awesome. Sarah got him to sign the picture for me when she went to one of Bruno's shows later that year. (Or early the next; something like that.)
I knew Bruno usually met with his fans in the lobby after the show, but I was paranoid the whole time. What if he decided not to come out? What if he left before we got there? What if, What if-- I'm pretty sure both Sarah and Gloria wanted to slap me upside the head.
True to their word, we were not late. In fact, by the time we got to the lobby, Bruno still hadn't arrived. Back in those days I wore wire-frame glasses, which I hated, and took them off to take the picture with Francesco, placing them on the armrest of a chair. Sarah warned me explicitly not to forget them. So when I got in line with Gloria, I was not at all surprised to hear her shout at me that I had forgotten my glasses. Oops.
Even while we waited in line, I still fretted that he would leave before we got a chance to speak with him. However, when he had finished taking pictures with everyone else, he came over to us with a "Hi, girls!" clearly recognizing everyone in our little party. Except, y'know, me. I couldn't look at him, despite the fact that he was two feet in front of me. Or, you know, because he was two feet in front of me. (Hey, I'd never met one of my favorite singers before. Be nice to me.) He talked to Sarah and Gloria for bit before Sarah introduced me. The exchange went a little something like this:
We were running a little late due to construction, so that put us all on edge. By the time we got there, Sarah had to let Gloria and me hurry into the theatre while she went and parked. We hurried in and then the ushers led us into the actual theatre. Let me remind you, gentle viewers, that at this time I had been studying French on my own for six months and spoke very, very, very little. Gloria was led to her seat by another usher and the other looked at me and said something in rapid French. I understood not a word. By this time the lights had been lowered, so she just kind of looked at me helplessly for a moment before leading me to my seat, which was on the left side three or four rows back, all the way against the wall. Sarah and Gloria were two rows ahead of me.
Just as I sat down in my seat, the music to Ma jalousie started and then, suddenly, there he was. Bruno jogged out onto the stage to the mic, greeted the crowd, and started singing, just like that. It took me a second. I stared at him, thinking, "Huh. That's Bruno." And then: "Oh, my God, that's Bruno." Let me tell you, gentle readers, I bawled. After a year of admiring him and loving his music, I was finally there and it was actually him in front of me. Not one of my proudest moments. I'm pretty sure the people next to me thought I was nuts.
Like I said, I didn't speak French at all at the time. Two more songs passed and then he started to introduce another one, picking up an acoustic guitar. He strummed a chord that sounded vaguely familiar. He mentioned "D'autres rives," which is the album title of my favorite song. Then he started the line, "Je veux partir loin de chez moi..." from my absolute favorite song of all time, the song Sarah said she didn't think he would sing. Then I cried some more. Two rows ahead of me I saw Sarah lean over and say something to Gloria; turns out she was saying she was surprised she didn't hear me scream. Me, too.
After the show, we waited near the stage and met Bruno's friend and then-background singer, Francesco Verrecchia, who was quite nice and totally awesome. See?
I knew Bruno usually met with his fans in the lobby after the show, but I was paranoid the whole time. What if he decided not to come out? What if he left before we got there? What if, What if-- I'm pretty sure both Sarah and Gloria wanted to slap me upside the head.
True to their word, we were not late. In fact, by the time we got to the lobby, Bruno still hadn't arrived. Back in those days I wore wire-frame glasses, which I hated, and took them off to take the picture with Francesco, placing them on the armrest of a chair. Sarah warned me explicitly not to forget them. So when I got in line with Gloria, I was not at all surprised to hear her shout at me that I had forgotten my glasses. Oops.
 |
| Note the happiness while awaiting Bruno. |
Sarah: "This is Ashlee."
Bruno: "Hi, Ashlee."
Me: *very shyly* "Hiii..."
Bruno: "Can you look at me in the eyes?"
Ohhhh, God, I wanted to die. Sarah and Gloria did, too, but mainly of laughter. And by the time I did look at him, he had turned to Gloria. Humph. At some point he asked us to wrap things up because it was late and he was tired (quite understandable), and Sarah told me to move and stand next to him so she could take our picture. I said, "I am moving." Apparently I wasn't, because I needed another shove.
Anyway, soon it was time for everyone to say goodnight, 'cause that's just what we did. We headed back to the hotel and passed out. The next day we kept to Brossard, going to a sort of Québécois version of Build-A-Bear, where I made a moose. His name is Monty and I love him. We also went to a music store where I had fun looking at all my favorite francophone artists that I loved so much but couldn't find anywhere else. Siiiigh.
When it was time to go to L'Assomption, Sarah couldn't find the theatre on her car's GPS. At all. So she went back into the hotel where they were nice enough to print out directions. Despite this mishap, however, we got to the theatre in plenty of time. Enough time for merchandiiiiise. Aw yeah. (However, I no longer own any merchandise I bought that night except for a Dracula booklet. Sad.)
This time I was on the right side of the theatre, aligned with the second row but with no one in front of me. Sarah and Gloria had front-row-center. Humph. Things were a little rearranged for this show, and Bruno added a number: Depuis que t'es parti, one of my favorites. Sweeeet. After the show, the three of us took turns talking to Bruno up at the table, which is a bit more nerve-wracking for me since I didn't have anyone to hide behind. However, he remembered my name! Though he spelled it wrong the autograph. Which is okay.
Then I went over to stand with the others and wait for pictures to be taken. I remember, then, finding everyone looking at me, including Bruno and his tour manager, Maurice. I couldn't figure out why, until I realized that I was standing where they wanted to take pictures. Whoops. I got out of the way tout d'suite. Pictures were taken, we said goodbye, and that was that.
Words cannot express how grateful I was and am to both Sarah and Gloria, not only for taking me with them, but also for putting up with me. At some point, they threatened to tie my bear, Sammy, to the hood of the car and make him a hood ornament. Though it's been five years, I still remember the trip vividly, something for which I'm thankful. It was truly one of the best times of my life.
WOO. I'm tired.
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