Can You Get a Baby Grand Piano Up Ten Stone Steps?

After my piece on finding the Winkelmann and my "Luc" finding me, I thought it might be fun to actually see the photos of the arrival of the Winkelmann at the Chatette at the end of October, 2006.  I had dreamed of a baby grand piano since I began playing, but my God...a baby grand piano that came all the way from Paris!  It doesn't get much more romantic than that! 

By the end of October, the Chatette and I had decided that the Winkelmann should have his own room.  The room has 2 doors that are parallel to each other. 

 

 

 

I would have chosen the front door, but my movers from C and D Roy chose the back. Watching it come up the steps and roll across the terrasse in pieces to be constructed in the new empty and waiting piano room, took my breath away! 

 

 

 

We got it settled and set-up, but we weren't finished yet.  Jean had purchased a Gaveau spinet from Msr. Jolly as well, and I had to take them up to her house.  There wasn't any room for me in the van, so I got on my bike to show them the way.  It was fun to scream at the neighbors from my bike as I passed: "Nos pianos sont arrivés!" It wasn't fun when I hit the hill and had to get off and walk.  

But we were set up and ready to enjoy making music in our lives again.

 

 

 

I made my last payment on the Winkelmann to Msr. Jolly when I was passing through Paris on my way back to the states to close down Columbus Street and spend the holidays with my family.  I wasn't looking forward to going back.  One morning when we were playing "Moon River", I was feeling particularly blue and from somewhere I heard:  "Come on, you have to go.  You have to go back and get our music!" I went.  On the metro from the Gare d'Austerlitz to Msr. Jolly's atelier, I had this overwhelming feeling and actually said outloud: 

 

"This piano is going to change my life."  

 

 

Comments

[Evelyn Jackson]

Seeing the Winkelmann in your beautiful French cottage takes my breath away! Three years of piano lessons were not enough; I long to be able to actually play and I can't think of anything more romantic than playing "Moonlight Sonata" on a baby grand deep in the heart of France.