France may be the most militantly secular country in Europe, but Paris’s gospel scene is flourishing.
The choir sways and their orange robes sway with them. The conductor, packed in an ice-cream-white suit, urging them on, while out front the Reverend Jean Carpenter – moving quite possibly like nobody has ever moved before in this ancient church in the medieval heart of Paris – sings praise to the Lord.
The person who emailed to say I should go and hear her sing described her voice in one word – “Biiiiiiiiiiig”.
She wasn’t exaggerating.
Before I bumped into this, I had no idea that what the article describes was taking place. Fascinating.