Continued ...

I forgot to mention a funny thing that happened at our table when Roy was signing our various items.  As he signed an item Lyn had given him, Roy said, "Does your name have an e?"  She said, "No".  There was a momentary pause and Roy said, "Well...it does now!" Of course that gave everyone a good laugh.

When we finished dinner and the Meet and Greet was over, we went across the hall to Lion D'Or and the stage performance.  We were escorted to the tables across the front of the room, right in front of the stage.  It's good to know important people, isn't it?  The concert started with a BANG, literally, by the Samajan World Band (a percussion group) and the entire evening was just fabulous.  The Samajan Band started at the back of the ballroom and moved that throbbing beat through the crowd to the front pointing the audience to the stage.  It was a very exciting way to open the program.

It's difficult to say which act was the best, because all of them were wonderful, and each was so different from the others. Of course, Roy's reading of his little fable was heavenly.  His voice was like warm syrup, and he spoke the words with such affection that it was very moving and oh, so sweet.

Jessica Vigneault, daughter of legendary musician/songwriter Gilles Vigneault, was the first act on stage.  She has a straighforward, bluesy delivery.  She accompanied herself on a keyboard.  She is a very talented lady.  Most of the singers accompanied themselves.  Paul Piché and Philippe B were very entertaining as they accompanied their vocals with acoustic guitar.

Between acts there was an adorable stagehand, Louie (we found out), that should have been billed on the program.  He made the sweeping up and moving set pieces as entertaining as the rest of the show. (Marcia took pictures of Pam and me with Louie and Jeffrey (our waiter), but unfortunately those pictures were lost.) There was a darling singer/pianist, Damien Robitaille, who had everyone in stitches with his performance.  He composed a couple of the songs he sang and they were really clever.  He also played back-up for one of the other performers, François Papineau, who did a number à la Tom Jones in Las Vegas, who had the audience really laughing it up.  Of course his song was in French, so I'm not sure what was causing the laughter.  Sylvie Moreau is an impressive vocalist as well as a fine actress, I didn't know that.

There was a very tall, slender young man, Mathieu Lippé, who intended to accompany his rap with an electric guitar.  However, something went wrong with the electricity and after several failed attempts, he just chucked the guitar and did his number acappella!  Now that's what I call a trouper!  A pounding rock group called Aquaplane had a lead singer who had Trisha B twitterpated!  Actually, he was very cute and their music was infectious.

The performer who affected me most (other than Roy) was a young woman named Katleen Fortin.  She was dressed in black except for a red tam over her long red hair.  She stood centerstage, almost perfectly still, and sang a song that was so moving it brought tears to my eyes.  She was magnificent.  Her performance was remarkable. An acappella group, La Hourde Vocale, was a wonderful surprise.  There was every size, shape, color, and age of folks, and they all came together to make a marvelous sound.  What fun!

It was really hard to sit still during the concert.  All of the music made you want to move.  Along with the great music, there came a darling little waiter, Jeffrey, who would bring wine whenever you wanted it - so as the evening wore on the urge to move got more and more appealing!  Louis Bellemarre's group was probably the most exhilarating act.  They had a phenomenal exuberance that was highly contagious.  They felt our need to move, I guess, because they got the crowd on their feet, clapping to the music.  Then several of the band members moved through the audience with short plastic tubes for making percussive sounds.  It was very interactive and such a lot of fun.  Everyone was out of their seats and fully engaged.  It was amazing!  I know I keep using the word "fun", but that's exactly what the evening was...FUN!  The Bellemarre group was joined by the Samajan Band for a couple of numbers, and then by all the artists for the finale.  Everyone ended on such an incredible high that no one wanted it to stop.

In the midst of the concert, of course, there was the auction.  Barb, Mary Ann and Vreni snagged the three pictures of and by Roy.  And Karen really...I mean reeeeally...tried to get that cute red nose, but alas it went to a Canadian woman in the crowd.  Thanks to Karen, it wasn't cheap either. Yay, Rivers!

It was very difficult to get to sleep that night, because we kept reliving memorable moments from an absolutely fantastic day and night.

Sunday morning a group of us met at Cora's on Drummond for a lovely breakfast arranged by Lyn (sometimes spelled with an "e"!)  We found out from Maxine that Marcia wouldn't be joining us, and that she had lost her camera on her taxi ride home the night before.  We were all sad to hear that, because not only was the camera valuable, the pictures on the camera were one-of-a-kind.  After breakfast, Karen, Pam and I said goodbye to Lyn and Maxine and then hit a few shops on the way back to the hotel.  We spent the afternoon finishing off the two bottles of wine Karen had gotten at Lion D'Or Saturday night, while we watched Truffe and Shake Hands with the Devil - neither of which I had seen.  I was glad to have friends watch Shake Hands with the Devil with me, because it was difficult and frustrating to watch and I might have been reluctant to watch it in its entirety had I been alone.  It is an excellent movie, but troubling.  Truffe, on the other hand, made me laugh out loud...and think. Very quirky!

We ate our last Montreal dinner at Weinstein and Gavino's on Crescent Sunday evening.  We came back to the hotel and packed in preparation for returning home on Monday.  Monday morning we rose early, had a light breakfast and took a cab to the airport.  I saw Pam and Karen off about 15 minutes apart.  Then I spent the remaining time before my flight recalling the wonderful time we'd had in the company of good friends in beautiful Montreal with beautiful Roy Dupuis.

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