Our next stop after Lyon was Polyfollia, a festival of choral music from all across the world held in Normandy. We tackled the challenge of loading 41 choristers, nine adults, and over 50 suitcases onto our TGV to Paris with grande vitesse and sat back to enjoy the French countryside pass us by. On arrival in Paris, we were met by Felicity and Richard, chaperones par excellence who formed a crucial part of the Polyfollia team of volunteers who would look after us so well for the next week.

Since 2004, Polyfollia has been welcoming choirs to contribute to a magnificent aural and visual feast in wonderful venues across the north of France. This year’s festival was the third for Artistic Director and Founder of the choir, Lyn Williams, who said she "enjoys Polyfollia more each time [she] comes back". Once we’d settled into our university accommodation, we headed to meet the Estonian TV Girls’ Choir and their conductor, Aarne Saluveer.

Over the course of the evening we got to know our fellow singers and conductors by singing for each other and chatting over supper. This sort of choral sharing across international borders is central to Polyfollia’s excellence as a festival, allowing our young musicians to see how these types of events are done in a completely different part of the world. For Lachlan (13), "collaborating with fine musicians from other continents made the festival a truly special experience".

Over the course of five days, we performed four concerts in four different towns. There was a wonderful sense that each local audience felt a proud ownership of their concert and ensured that we were received to full houses. From Norman churches to galvanized-tin sheds, each venue offered its own challenges in terms of acoustic, piano (in some only an electronic would fit) and backstage spaces. The choir and our ever-versatile pianist, Sally Whitwell, met each hurdle with calm consideration. The second half of each concert featured Heritage in Song, our collection of chorister-based musical stories (read more about it here).

The first story describes Abel’s grandmother’s experience in wartime Germany and begins with a haunting evocation of an air-raid shelter. This became especially poignant in our last performance in Evrecy, a town which had suffered enormously during the same war – we could sense immensely strong emotional intensity throughout the audience during Christmas Gift. Fortunately, our guide Felicity had told us to expect this before we’d arrived, enabling us to offer renewed sensitivity in our singing. In addition to our busy concert schedule we managed to make a trip out to Mont Saint Michel, our fifth UNESCO World Heritage listed site on this journey, where we toured the ancient monastery and enjoyed a crêpe or two.

Over the course of the week, we were delighted to get to know Jacques Vanherle, the Artistic Director of Polyfollia and one of the world’s greatest choral enthusiasts. Next stop: Paris!

You can read more about the Polyfollia Festival here, and see photos from the Sydney Children's Choir's tour on their Facebook page