Le Touquet 2000

Recap of the 2000 European Tour

Wendell & Marilyn Whaley
Co-Presidents

We want to take this opportunity to thank everyone involved with the 2000 European Tour of the Cary High School Music Department. Despite some minor inconveniences resulting from the baggage handler strike at Charles deGaulle, we believe the trip was a success. What a great way for Tony, the senior students, and those senior parents who chaperoned on the trip to end their tour with the band!

Even though a few instruments were not received until Saturday, the band performed parades and stand-up concerts in Le Touquet, France and in Bruges, Belgium. The crowds commented on how unusual it was to see such a large marching band in France and Belgium and on the skill of our musicians.

Our students seemed to enjoy sightseeing in Le Touquet and on the day trip into Bruges. Several students actually took a quick dip in the English Channel. Most students took advantage of the boat rides in Bruges to see the city from a different vantage point. Several students and parents had authentic "Belgium" waffles which were served with fresh strawberries and whipped cream or ice cream (not maple syrup).

During our stay in Le Touquet, the cooking staff at the Catering School treated us to breakfast and hot lunches and dinner each day. We had fresh baked French bread with each meal. The chefs were eager to prepare meals which they thought we would like. The meals were delicious, and the coffee was strong.

On Saturday afternoon, the chorus and orchestra performed for senior citizens at a rest home in Le Touquet. On Palm Sunday morning, the citizens of Le Touquet were treated to a performance by the chorus and orchestra before morning mass. On Sunday evening, they filled their concert hall to hear the bands and chorus perform. The kids rendered top notch performances, and the citizens of Le Touquet and our chaperones applauded them for their efforts. The marching band finished the evening with a parade through Le Touquet to the English Channel and a stand up concert in front of the Catering School as a final tribute to the citizens of Eloquent and to our chefs. These same chefs stayed up late and got up early to prepare us breakfast and a bag lunch for our trip into Paris.

On Monday, we started the trip into Paris with a bus tour of the city. Then, we were off the bus to tour Paris for approximately seven hours in small groups of chaperones and students. We made good use of the metro and were able to see several major attractions. My group finished our tour by making a mad dash for the Louvre since the students that we were chaperoning felt their trip to Paris would not be complete without seeing the Mona Lisa, the Victory figure, and the Venus de Milo. While the odds were against us, we actually were able to locate all three (and to take pictures) making the trip to Paris complete for these kids.

On Tuesday, the marching band performed a parade and mini stand up concert at EuroDisney. One marching band student remarked that it was exhilarating when the gate opened, and they saw the crowds lining the street to watch the band perform. I know that as a parent I felt the same way for the kids. What an opportunity for them! We finished the final evening in Paris with a bus trip to the Eiffel Tower. While we arrived at the Eiffel Tower at about 9:30 pm, it was after midnight when the last band student came down on the elevator with the staff as the attraction was closing. Thankfully the trip out of Charles de Gaulle went much smoother than the trip in, and there was only one instrument that was delivered late.

We will long remember the good times that we had with the band students and the parents who chaperoned on this trip. In case you are interested, a video is being made from the footage shot on the trip. It will include footage of all the parades and concerts as well as candid shots of the groups. We will provide details on the cost at a later date.

A number of local businesses helped us defray the European trip costs by donating funds or other items. We want to take this opportunity to thank them. Specifically, we received donations from: Joe & Steve Zayton, JLC Corporation, Applebees, Arts Council, Ashworth Drugs, Austin Foods, Buehler Products, Cary Chamber of Commerce, Cary Oil Company, Cary Rotary Club, Chick-Fil-A (Harrison Avenue), DeHaven's Transfer and Storage, Edward Valves, Highwood Services, IKON, Jelly Beans LLC, Lazy Daze Festival, McLaurin Parking, MCI, SAS Institute, South Hills Shopping Center, Thad Shearin Vending, Town of Cary, Walmart, and Weston Industrial Park. We also want to thank the former mayor of Cary, Mr. Koka Booth, who helped raise funds and donations for the European trip and made the initial contacts for the band to perform at EuroDisney.

The following story appeared in The Cary News on May 3, 2000:

Imps wow sister city

By Eric Lusk
Cary News Staff Writer

The Cary High School band had groupies.

People lined the streets to catch a glimpse, flocked to the concert halls and even followed the group to practice sessions, video tapes rolling.

The Imps are accustomed to drawing crowds around the Triangle, but the group thoroughly charmed a new set of fans during a week-long trip to France and Belgium over spring break.

"They packed the sides of the streets to watch us march and play," said senior drum major Drew Rogers. "They were really receptive."

The 163-member troupe spent most of its tour in Cary's sister-city, Le Touquet, on the northern coast. The Imps also entertained audiences at EuroDisney in Paris and in Bruges, Belgium.

While students and adults came home talking about seeing the Mona Lisa or standing at the top of the Eiffel Tower, some of their fondest memories came simply from the reception they received. Organized youth bands apparently are a rarity in France, especially in Le Touquet, a resort village known as "Paris by the Sea."

"Having a marching band go down the streets in France is quite a spectacle," said Cary High Principal David Coley, part of the Imps' entourage. "The people would even come and watch the band warm up. We did two parades [in Le Touquet], and the same people came out to watch both parades.

"We started recognizing people. It was heart-warming."

The Cary High band took its first trip to Le Touquet in January 1998 following participation in a New Year's parade in London. The mayor of Le Touquet repeatedly invited them back, and the Cary High group began working on a return trip last summer and fall.

This time, the Imps brought along a larger slate of performers - the marching band, an orchestra ensemble, a choral group, even a couple members from Apex and Green Hope high school groups. A host of Cary dignitaries joined the performers, like former Mayor Koka Booth and former band director Jimmy Burns. The Imps played a variety of town concerts, parades and church performances.

Placards around Le Touquet advertised Cary's visit. While in the city, most of the group stayed - and was well-fed - at a Le Touquet catering school.

"We had a wonderful time," said Cary band director Tony Robinson, who is stepping down at the end of the school year. "It was a very special ending for me. It was a good end to the school year for the band."

As with most international experiences, the Cary group ran into a few snafus. The Imps were the victims of a luggage-handlers strike in Paris and went without uniforms and a few instruments during the parades and performances in Le Touquet and Bruges.

Fortunately, a Cary business donated wind-breakers to each student before the trip which served as impromptu uniforms. The official marching band outfits finally showed up by the end of the week as the Imps prepared to march at EuroDisney.

"We had to wait several days for some of the brass and percussion instruments to arrive," Coley said. "In Cary, we would just rent a truck and go pick them up at the airport. In Paris, because they were on strike, they refused to allow some of the packages out of the storage area."

In between shows, the band enjoyed several hours of sightseeing in Paris. They concluded their stay with a night-time trip to the top of "La Tour Eiffel."

"It was all lit up," Rogers said. "On the hour, they would have several strobe lights go off, and it made it look like a giant, sparkling tower.

"From the top, you could see for miles. There is so much city in Paris. You could look in any direction and you won't see any countryside."

The following story appeared in The Cary News on May 3, 2000:

Band member reflects on trip of lifetime

By Ashley A. Towle
Cary High Band Member

The countdown began last August. That's when Tony Robinson, head of the band program at Cary High School, announced that the "big" band trip this academic year would be to Europe, specifically France and Belgium. My mother, who lived in Europe while in high school and visited France, told me stories about Paris. But nothing, no amount of stories or pictures or planning, could prepare me for what was to come.

On the afternoon of April 12, most members of the CHS music department (along with a small contingent from Apex and Green Hope high schools), including marching band, orchestra, wind ensemble, and chorus, as well as faculty, administration, and chaperones departed from Raleigh-Durham International Airport. We arrived at the Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris early the following morning and set out in buses for Le Touquet, an oceanfront community, three hours away.

In Le Touquet, Cary's sister city, we not only stayed in the dorm rooms of a cooking school -- which architecturally resembled a very tall Rubik's cube that wasn't aligned -- we ate all our meals there.

In exchange for the hospitality of our hosts, we performed for the people of Le Touquet who had heard about our visit thanks to advertisements posted all around the city. Even the marching band practices drew an audience. People seemed fascinated by the fact that so many teenagers could play so many instruments.

In this pretty resort the marching band paraded down narrow streets and offered stand-up concerts, while the chorus, orchestra and wind ensemble performed at a rest home, church, and gave an formal evening concert. The constant applause and smiles told us they were appreciative of the music, which over the course of the trip ranged from jazz to Disney classics.

During our stay in Le Touquet we took a side trip to Bruges. Located in the Flanders region of Belgium, it was founded in the ninth century and is known as the "City of Bridges." After a parade and three stand-up concerts we had five hours to explore the town.

It is very scenic place filled with tall, elegant houses overlooking cobblestone streets, a river winding its way through the city, and a palace decorated with red flags and gold statues.

If you really wanted to experience the past you could rent a horse and buggy for a sightseeing tour. Little restaurants served everything from Belgian waffles to "American style" hamburger and fries. The most popular souvenir purchase was chocolate; some people also bought lace.

The final leg of our week-long trip was the one everyone had really been waiting for: Paris. As our buses first crossed into the city we saw nothing that really distinguished it from any other metropolitan area. Then, however, we spotted in the distance the top of the legendary Eiffel Tower.

Suddenly things got very busy. The streets bustled with traffic and a variety of people. We saw expensive shops where we could have easily spent every franc we had. One of our parent chaperones served as a tour guide, pointing out famous and not so famous sights.

As a group we visited Notre Dame Cathedral and even though it was closed we were glad for the opportunity to see it from the outside. After lunch in a little café, where the food was light and smoke heavy, my group of nine visited the Arc de Triomphe rising magnificently from the middle of the boulevard. We walked along the Champs Elysees until we reached the Louvre with its glass pyramid entrance and world famous art, including the Mona Lisa.

The second to last stop on our tour of France was magical EuroDisney. Those of us who performed here were considered Disney entertainers while we paraded down Main Street. Goofy, Winnie the Pooh, Chip and Dale, and other cartoon characters cheered us on. Once our work was done though we reverted to guest status.

With our "fast passes" we rode Space Mountain and the Indiana Jones rollercoaster without much of a wait. The Small World boat ride was a leisurely float through many different cultures, and roller coasters zoomed past as people in spinning teacups got dizzy.

At day's end we went back to Paris for a farewell look at the city at night. For most of us it was the view of a lifetime. It's common to see pictures of the Eiffel Tower, a vast wrought-iron structure soaring skyward. But what you can't imagine is how it looks at night, illuminated with gold light then bursting into twinkling silver light, as if millions of fireflies have invaded it.

Our buses pulled up in front of the tower and we saw in gold lights the phrase "An2000" meaning year 2000. The majority of us chose to visit the top of the tower. What a sight it was. Cold wind greeted us but we didn't care, we were too engrossed with the sight of billions of lights that make Paris live up to its reputation as the "City of Lights."

We could see the Arc de Triomphe, boats making their way down the Seine River and a palace. Though we were very high up it didn't seem to bother those who were afraid of heights, the sight was too magnificent to worry about anything else. There was no language barrier here because such beauty, like music, is universal.

The morning after our visit to the Eiffel Tower it was time to head to the airport and back home. We left hoping that what we offered to the people of France and Belgium was in its own way as special as what they shared with us. I know that this experience is one that will stay with me forever.

(Ashley Towle is a ninth grader at Cary High and plays clarinet in the marching band.)

The following story appeared in The Cary News on April 8, 2000:

Cary High musicians ready for France

Members of the school's band, orchestra
and chorus will go to Cary's sister city,
Le Touquet, next week.

By Eric Lusk
Cary News Staff Writer

Ben Crook remembers the first time he visited Le Touquet, France with members of the Cary High School band and orchestra.

It was late December 1997, and as the young players began their first outdoor rehearsal in the French resort, a large group of curious townspeople gathered to listen. Before long, the Cary group was marching through the village and giving an impromptu concert.

"They don't get live music in Le Touquet that often," said Crook, now a senior trumpet player. "Wherever we went to play, a crowd would follow."

The Imps will give Cary's sister city an encore next week.

Members of the Cary High band, orchestra and chorus will perform in Le Touquet as well as in Bruges, Belgium and EuroDisney during a week-long spring break tour. A contingent of 163 students and adults will fly out of RDU International Airport on Tuesday and Wednesday and will return April 19-20.

"It's going to be a rare experience. It's going to be a lot of fun," Crook said.

As soon as Cary's last trip to Le Touquet ended, the mayor of the small town at the mouth of the River Canche in northern France extended an invitation for their return. Last summer, Cary High band director Tony Robinson took him up on his offer.

This year's trip, Robinson's last as band director, will feature 113 student performers and 50 adults, including orchestra director Marta Findlay-Partridge, choral director Ed Yasick, Cary High Principal Dave Coley, former Cary band director Jimmy Burns and former Cary Mayor Koka Booth among others.

A former Cary student plans to meet the band members during one leg of their tour. About half of the band members on this year's tour went to France the last time, Crook said.

While in Le Touquet, the Cary groups will participate in the town's Spring Music Festival. The marching band will join a parade, and the various groups will give stand-up concerts. The strings and chorus will play in a rest home and at a church.

The visit to Bruges, Belgium (in the Flanders region) on April 14 will include a performance in their market square. Other highlights include a concert and parade at EuroDisney on April 18 and an afternoon of sightseeing in Paris. The Paris leg wasn't on the last European tour.

A catering school in Le Touquet will house most of the Cary group, and to the Imps' delight, their students and staff will provide many of the meals.

"It's a touristy-type town, and the people are very friendly," said Marilyn Whaley, co-president of the Cary Band Boosters. "The last time, they were very receptive to our group and appreciated our music. That certainly made it much easier to go back."

Preparing for next week's departure has taken close to nine months. The worker bee Cary Band Boosters and other volunteers have divided-and-conquered the many tasks from fund-raising to figuring out how to send all of the instruments and uniforms (most will be crated and sent on ahead of the students). Each student will be allowed to take one suitcase and one carry-on bag.

"Logistically speaking, coordinating a week-long trip involving more than 160 people has been a Herculean task," said band parent Lisa Towle, who will accompany the group. "Committees have included equipment, uniforms, luggage, medical, chaperones, passports and accounts payable. My hat is off to all of them."

Each participating student had to raise $650. Fund-raisers included Christmas wrapping ventures, fruit sales, car washes, etc. Several Cary businesses and individuals also donated cash.

"We received a $10,000 donation from the Town of Cary for help with the Paris part of the trip," said Robinson, who will retire after this school year. "We have a company that is donating jackets and hats for the students."

The day in Paris will prove both educational and fun. Students will tour the Eiffel Tower and Versailles.

"I'm looking forward to seeing the Eiffel Tower," Crook said. "I've learned about it in history and seen the pictures, but I've never been there before."

The band members will likely savor their reception from the French people the most. Marching bands, especially, are a rarity in the Le Touquet area.

During the last trip, crowds packed the gymnasium to watch the musical groups perform. Whaley remembers spectators following band members along the parade route in Le Touquet, even when the streets narrowed considerable heading into town.

"We were such a novelty to them," she said.