Since we are living in Paris, we always wanted to visit the estonian embassy in France. Last Wednesday evening, an estonian concert was given there, so it was the perfect occasion for us to go. Jaak Sooäär and Tuule Kann, two famous estonian musicians, after a short stay in Lille, for Europe XXL festival, and especially for a kind of a “midday-midday on Baltic countries” event, were stopping by in Paris, before going back to Estonia.

We went then in La Baume street, where the estonian embassy is located, in the 8th district of Paris. We were already so excited to see only one estonian flag, so you can imagine how happy we were when people, and the ambassador himself, welcomed us so warmly in french and in estonian. Strangely we felt as “at home” again.

The atmosphere of the concert was intimate, only 30 people were there to listen to it, that enabled us to enjoy this traditional estonian music in the best conditions. The originality of the group was that they played kannel (sort of zither and one of the main instrument of estonian folk music) with electric guitar. That gave us an impression of mixture between past and future, heritage and new technology, a good symbol of Estonia in some way.

During the whole evening, we could hear with pleasure, “regilaulud”, these songs with only one chord, lasting hours and hours, sometimes without real end… And we could even understand some lyrics. We were also so surprised to discover one popular song coming from our dear estonian village of Joelähtme, a song you sing traditionally when you go on a swing, and called “Kolm Järve” : the three lakes. (it is the last song of the video)

At the end of the concert, we even sang some songs from Setumaa and southern part of Estonia, and danced all together with musicians.

This evening gave us the chance to feel as we were back in Estonia, thanks to this authenticity and simplicity which we missed a lot. We found back estonian humour, through musicians words, and we were so happy to be able to hear and speak estonian again.

For all these reasons, we surely will be back for other nice receptions organized by the estonian embassy in Paris !