Bike Tour 2021

Following the success of the ensemble’s first bicycle tour in Normandy in August 2020, Correspondances will repeat the experience in the fall of 2021, between September 17 and 25. With a new team and a new program, the ten musicians will travel 300 km along the roads of Normandy between Le Bec-Hellouin and Balleroy.

This year, we are supported by the DRAC Normandie, the theater of Caen, the Interco Bernay Terres de Normandie, the Centre national de la musique, ALiS and the Michelin Foundation.

In the 17th century, music was part of the daily life of the court, which was mainly itinerant before Versailles. Musicians had to adapt to random numbers, sometimes bizarre playing conditions, rudimentary instruments, and all the hazards associated with travel, in order to continue to give rhythm to the life of a community, no matter what happened.

Designed in less than three months in the summer of 2020 to respond flexibly to the constraints of the health crisis and to get as close as possible to rural areas, the bicycle tour of the Correspondances ensemble will become an annual event to discover the most beautiful heritage sites in Normandy. The program includes music awareness workshops, meetings with craftsmen, musical processions, concerts, picnics and cycling stops with the public, putting music and conviviality back at the heart of the priorities.

Each stage of this tour opens a window on a territory, its heritage, and the music of choice of Correspondances, with a special focus on young people!

Stud farms, rural manors, abbeys, churches: many particularly atypical private and public heritage sites open their doors to festive events, creating unexpected links with the music proposed by the Correspondances ensemble.

By choosing a regional circuit with distances between two stages not exceeding 50 km, Correspondances offers its musicians a daring challenge: to reach each concert venue by bicycle!