Preparing to move to France I have been singing the Daily Office and the Eucharist in French. The French form of the Breviary, the Liturgie des Heures , is published in four volumes. A one volume edition, Prières du Temp Présent, has all the hours of the day except the readings for the Office of Readings, the psalms (for the OoR) are included and a single reading for a mid-day Hour; there is a very handy pocket edition.

There are good musical resources for singing the Office in French. Chanter L’Office, is excellent. Every text that could be sung is set to music, mainly by Joseph Gelineau. But it is not simple to sing. The Communauté Saint Martin, has produced Les Heures Gregoriennes. These are three beautiful volumes that have the music from the Latin repertoire with a French translation and tones for the psalms in French. The French texts are not always those of the official Breviary, as is always the case for the intercessions.

I like and use Chanter les Heures: Livret Offices from Communauté de l’Emmanuel. It is not a comprehensive volume but there is certainly enough to sing the Office daily throughout the year and the music is simpler than Chanter l’Office.

I attach above a little booklet I have made of music for the Ordinary of the Office and I use this mainly with psalm tones (from Conception Abbey) for the psalms and canticles.

The Eucharistic booklet is mainly music from the Gregorian Kyriale. The rite is basically Anglican, Common Worship Eucharistic Prayer H, in French, set to a simple tone, a Eucharistic Prayer from the Taizé Community’s Eucharist book of 1972, and Eucharistic Prayer 2 from the Roman Missal. The Dominical words have all been changed to align with the current French Roman Missal.

There are many opportunities online to listen to the Office sung in French. KTO is the best place to start for this, and other printed resources are available. Anecdotally, my feeling is that a daily sung Office is more common in France than, for example, in England, not by professional choirs but in ordinary parishes.

Online I particularly enjoy the singing of Compline from the seminarians at the Seminary at Versailles.