It’s quite easy to get information about concerts taking place in Notre Dame. We used for an example classictic.com. From there you can purchase yourself seating places which reserve you seats in the cathedral during concert. This online reservation gives you reserved tickets as well, which you can either purchase on an earlier day or even right before the concert.

We chose a Gregorian chant concert which took place in Dame on 29 December 2009. Since we did not fancy standing up, we bought our tickets through this website classictic.com and got our tickets for the show on the same morning from the Dame’s ticket office (just enter the main door and you’ll see the desks in front of you).

While getting the tickets is the easy part and even the neighborhood does not look as scary as we thought, it’s getting in, that’s the problem. Remember, the Dame has two doors which are used and the one on the right is open daily. When we got to the cathedral, there were two lines forming, the one on the right was longer thus we presumed they were the ones without tickets, since we knew that the ticket office was also on the right. Hence we stood on the left side. The concert was supposed to start 20.30 thus people were encouraged to come 30 minutes earlier for this was the time when the doors would open.

It was around 20.10 when the doors finally opened on both sides. The tickets for our line were checked just in front of the fence that was temporarily built in front of the cathedral (just for the concert I should add). For some unknown reason the doors were closed as quickly they were opened at the first time. Since the explanations were given in French we were left in the dark. I must say that in addition to utter frustration I felt confused and also angry because the mob was just pressing together towards the gates. I honestly felt like I couldn’t breathe. This and the frustration that I had paid for my tickets and I could see the other line who still had to purchase them from inside, moving and entering the cathedral. I was squeezed between people and couldn’t move on my own so they practically squashed me in when the gates finally opened up. And you think that they are grownups! I have in a rock-concert full of teenagers and it was fairly the same, only difference is about 30 years of age and entirely different music.

Much to my surprise, it was so calm and quiet inside. It almost felt like I was dreaming the horror I just went through. We easily found our seats clearly marked as classictic.com ones. It was somewhat surprising to hear a couple right behind us sitting on reserved seats to speak fluent French and when a lady came to check if they had eligible tickets to sit there they claimed they did not understand any French or English for that matter. It was bizarre, since they only won like two rows or so and there were many seats available.

The show itself was depressing. The performers sang from different places. I understand that the intention was to show various acoustic effects but it seems that either the building is not designed for it or requires more singers. Oh, and the people were just awful. Talking, coughing, playing with phones etc. Honestly, like in kinder-garden. Since there was like six performers it was a rather poor sound and with other annoying factors the show was not enjoyable at all. Unfortunately.