Et oui! Il n’y a pas que le rêve américain qui brille dans nos coeurs et dans nos yeux, il y a aussi le rêve parisien! Et qui mieux que Juliette Gréco, morte à 93 ans hier le 23 septembre 2020, incarne ce rêve parisien d’une époque à jamais révolue? If you’ve never heard of Juliette, I’m going to give you a quick summary de sa vie extraordinaire, puis je partagerai avec vous trois de ses chansons en vidéo, avec les paroles en français, et la traduction en anglais! You’ll see the third one is quite naughty so I think I might let you look for the translation yourself… who wouldn’t love naughty French homework?

 

Bien sûr, the Parisian Dream does not work for everyone : you have to be in the right place, au bon moment, with the right people, avec le bon message, and maybe with the right attitude and the right look? Juliette Gréco avait tout ça!

 

Juliette was born on le 7 février 1927 à Montpellier dans le sud de la France. Ses parents se séparent et Juliette et sa soeur are brought up par leurs grands-parents before moving back with their maman à Paris en 1936. Juliette commence à apprendre la danse classique à l’Opéra Garnier but WW2 éclate en 1939 et sa mère et sa soeur sont déportées au camp de Ravensbrück situé à 80km au nord de Berlin. Juliette miraculously escapes deportation yet remains emprisonnée until la fin de la guerre.

 

Après la libération, Juliette retourne à Paris where she discovers performing arts et commence à jouer de petits rôles à la Comédie Française. Elle se promène à Saint Germain des Prés où elle rencontre facilement philosophes, écrivains, poètes, musiciens, artistes en tout genre and quickly becomes their muse! Can you imagine hanging out in Paris fancy 7th arrondissement and just like that devenir l’amie de Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, Boris Vian, Pablo Picasso, and last but not least Miles Davis who became one of her famous lovers!

 

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Elle enchante et séduit tout le monde avec sa force, sa liberté, sa beauté, sa voix profonde et sensuelle, and many of the big names of Paris et ailleurs, some of them mentionned above, commencent à lui écrire des chansons. En fait, c’est Serge Gainsbourg qui lui a écrit une de mes chansons préférées : La Javanaise.

 

La Javanaise

 

J’ai choisi La Javanaise parce que je la trouve très belle for one thing, mais aussi parce qu’elle est simple à apprendre, the chorus being repeated many times, it makes things easier meaning you are more likely to learn it rapidement and sing along avec plaisir! Comme je l’ai déjà dit, cette chanson a été écrite par Serge Gainsbourg, autre monument de la chanson française, so why not mix the two for twice as much beauté?

 

 

J’avoue j’en ai bavé, pas vous, mon amour?   –  I confess, I went through hell, not you, my love?
Avant d’avoir eu vent de vous mon amour   –  Before I got wind of you my love
Ne vous déplaise   –  Whether you admit it or not
En dansant la Javanaise   –  As we danced the Javanaise
Nous nous aimions   –  We loved each other
Le temps d’une chanson   –  For the time of one song
À votre avis qu’avons-nous vu de l’amour?   –  In your opinion, what have we seen of love?
De vous à moi vous m’avez eu, mon amour   –  From you to me, you have had me, my love
Ne vous déplaise   –  Whether you admit it or not
En dansant la Javanaise   –  As we danced the Javanaise
Nous nous aimions   –  We loved each other
Le temps d’une chanson   –  For the time of one song
Hélas avril en vain me voue à l’amour   –  Alas, April was in vain when it came to love
J’avais envie de voir en vous cet amour   –  I felt like seeing that love in you
Ne vous déplaise   –  Whether you admit it or not
En dansant la Javanaise   –  As we danced the Javanaise
Nous nous aimions   –  We loved each other
Le temps d’une chanson   –  For the time of one song
La vie ne vaut d’être vécue sans amour   –  Life is not worth being lived without love
Mais c’est vous qui l’avez voulu, mon amour   –  But it’s you who wanted it, my love
Ne vous déplaise   –  Whether you admit it or not
En dansant la Javanaise   –  As we danced the Javanaise
Nous nous aimions   –  We loved each other
Le temps d’une chanson   –  For the time of one song

 

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J’ai trouvé cette interview de Serge Gainsbourg par Juliette Gréco que je partage ici avec vous. Je pense que vous la trouverez assez touchante et puis surtout plutôt facile à comprendre parce que Juliette parle lentement, clairement, et articule bien. What do you think? Vous comprenez?

 

 

Vous avez peut-être déjà entendu interpréter cette prochaine chanson par Édith Piaf ou Yves Montand, mais Juliette Gréco l’a chantée avant eux, et personnellement j’avoue que c’est vers sa version que va ma préférence. How about you?

 

Sous le ciel de Paris

 

 

Sous le ciel de Paris   –  Beneath the Parisian sky
S’envole une chanson   –  A song flutters away
Elle est née d’aujourd’hui   –  It was born today
Dans le cœur d’un garçon   –  In a young man’s heart
Sous le ciel de Paris   –  Beneath the Parisian sky
Marchent des amoureux   –  Lovers walk about
Leur bonheur se construit   –  Their happiness built
Sur un air fait pour eux   –  Upon a tune made just for them
Sous le pont de Bercy   –  Beneath the Pont de Bercy
Un philosophe assis   –  There’s a seated philosopher
Deux musiciens, quelques badauds   –  Two musicians and a few onlookers
Puis les gens par milliers   –  And then people in the thousands
Sous le ciel de Paris   –  Beneath the Parisian sky
Jusqu’au soir vont chanter   –  Will sing into the evening
L’hymne d’un peuple épris   –  The hymn of the people in love
De sa vieille cité   –  With their old city
Près de Notre Dame   –  Near Notre Dame
Parfois couve un drame   –  Sometimes trouble is brewing
Oui mais à Paname   –  But in “Paname”
Tout peut s’arranger   –  everything gets worked out
Quelques rayons   –   A few rays of sunlight
Du ciel d’été   –   From the summer sky
L’accordéon   –   The accordion
D’un marinier   –   Of a sailor
L’espoir fleurit   –  Hope is blossoming
Au ciel de Paris   –   In the Parisian sky
Sous le ciel de Paris   –  Beneath the Parisian sky
Coule un fleuve joyeux   –  A joyous river flows
Il endort dans la nuit les clochards et les gueux-   It lulls the tramps and beggars to sleepSous le ciel de Paris   –  Beneath the Parisian sky
Les oiseaux du Bon Dieu   –  God’s birds
Viennent du monde entier   –  Come from around the world
Pour bavarder entre eux   –  To chat among themselves
Et le ciel de Paris   –   And the Parisian sky
A son secret pour lui   –  Has its own secret
Depuis vingt siècles il est épris   –  For twenty centuries it has been in love
De notre Île Saint Louis   –  With our Île Saint-Louis
Quand elle lui sourit   –  When she smiles at him
Il met son habit bleu   –   It puts on its blue suit
Quand il pleut sur Paris   –   When it rains over Paris
C’est qu’il est malheureux   –   It is because it’s sad
Quand il est trop jaloux   –   When it is too jealous
De ses millions d’amants   –  Of her millions of lovers
Il fait gronder sur nous   –   It unleashes upon us
Son tonnerre éclatant   –  His roaring thunder
Mais le ciel de Paris   –  But the Parisian sky
N’est pas longtemps cruel   –  Is not cruel for long
Pour se faire pardonner   –  So that he may be forgiven
Il offre un arc-en-ciel   –  He offers a rainbow

 

Déshabillez-moi

 

Et maintenant, voici la fameuse naughty song I promised you au début de ce blog! Elle s’appelle Déshabillez-moi, well, that sets the tone, as it simply means Undress me.

 

Guess what, I saved you the homework en trouvant une vidéo avec la traduction en anglais! Petits chanceux!

 

 

Déshabillez-moi, déshabillez-moi
Oui, mais pas tout de suite, pas trop vite
Sachez me convoiter, me désirer, me captiver
Déshabillez-moi, déshabillez-moi
Mais ne soyez pas comme tous les hommes, trop pressés.
Et d’abord, le regard
Tout le temps du prélude
Ne doit pas être rude, ni hagard
Dévorez-moi des yeux
Mais avec retenue
Pour que je m’habitue, peu à peu…Déshabillez-moi, déshabillez-moi
Oui, mais pas tout de suite, pas trop vite
Sachez m’hypnotiser, m’envelopper, me capturer
Déshabillez-moi, déshabillez-moi
Avec délicatesse, en souplesse, et doigté
Choisissez bien les mots
Dirigez bien vos gestes
Ni trop lents, ni trop lestes, sur ma peau
Voilà, ça y est, je suis
Frémissante et offerte
De votre main experte, allez-y…Déshabillez-moi, déshabillez-moi
Maintenant tout de suite, allez vite
Sachez me posséder, me consommer, me consumer
Déshabillez-moi, déshabillez-moi
Conduisez-vous en homme
Soyez l’homme… Agissez!
Déshabillez-moi, déshabillez-moi
Et vous… déshabillez-vous!

 

Bien des années plus tard, une de mes chanteuses préférées Mylène Farmer à propos de laquelle j’avais déjà écrit une blog post, a repris la chanson de Juliette! Magnifique!

 

J’ai trouvé deux versions pour vous pour que vous puissiez comparer… la première vidéo date de 1987 et la deuxième de 2007, soit vingt ans plus tard!

 

 

 

Alors? Qu’en dites-vous? Trouvez-vous que Mylène complimente bien Juliette? Moi oui!

 

——————————————————————————————————————————-

 

Learn French online with Virginie

Join French Truly’s online school, either by buying the French online course(s) of your choice or by becoming a monthly member. See more details about the membership at the bottom of this page 🙂

Each French online course is packed with video & audio files along with written material, to make it as fun, easy, and user friendly as possible for you! Come and learn French online with me!

 

French online course #1: 600 WORDS

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In this course, you will find 15 videos (+ 10 bonus ones) to help & accompany you every step of the way through the course + for each word, each sentence, each expression, each conjugated verb, I have created an audio file of my voice, slow and slightly faster speed. Your French language learning experience has never been so easy, fun, and fruitful. You can learn French online and benefit from the flexibility working at your own pace offers, while having me with you the whole time.

 

Did you know…

You can converse (speak + understand) in French with only 600 WORDS?

The average French person only uses between 300 & 3,000 WORDS?

This means that if you can master a relatively short list of words, you’ll be able to express yourself like the average French person! Plus you’re much more likely to understand the French when they talk back to you!

 

This course will teach you…

1- How to speak French

2- How to pronounce French

3- How to make French sentences

4- How to conjugate all the most common French verbs

5- How to polish your results

6- How to self evaluate your French

More info HERE

  • It should take you about 30 hours to complete this course, which is made up of 10 lessons
  • This course is designed for a beginner / intermediate level. If you are intermediate but feel like you could really reinforce your foundations, you will love it.
  • You can join whenever, either by buying the course or by becoming a monthly member giving you access to my French online courses from $10 / month. See more details about the membership at the bottom of this page 🙂

 

Online course # 2: PERFECT PRONUNCIATION

Learn French online

In this course you will find 11 videos + 150 audio files + 92 pages PDF format to help & accompany you every step of the way throughout the course. In some parts of the videos, my face will appear close up and profile so you can easily see how I make these sounds with my mouth. The 150 audio files are composed of the 100 most popular French words and the 50 most common French phrases. They are recordings of my voice, speaking slowly enough so you can easily grasp every syllable. Your French language learning experience has never been so easy, fun, and fruitful. You can learn French online and benefit from the flexibility working at your own pace offers, while having me with you the whole time.

NB: if you are the proud owner of my previous French online course 600 WORDS, don’t worry, this is not a repeat as we are now exploring 1 letter words and up, whereas in 600 WORDS we began at 4 letter words and up.

 

Combine knowledge with confidence…

For you to be able to have a pleasant and efficient conversation with a French person, one thing is key… can you guess what it is? Confidence! How well do you think you will communicate in French if you don’t feel confident about your accent? If you are scared that people won’t understand you? Or even worse if you think someone might make fun of you? Without a minimum of confidence there is no room for communication. Yet if you feel confident, you can afford to make a few mistakes here and there because people will still understand you. What prevents a conversation from happening isn’t just a lack of knowledge, it’s also a lack of confidence. You need to have both to make it work, not to mention, to make it fun!

 

This course will teach you…

1- How to pronounce every letter of the alphabet

2- How to pronounce every digraph & trigraph

3- How to make every French sentence flow

4- How to pronounce the 100 most popular French words

5- How to pronounce the 50 most popular French phrases

6- How to avoid the pronunciation mistakes everyone makes

More info HERE

  • It should take you about 20 to 2 hours to complete this course, which is made up of 11 lessons
  • This course is designed for a beginner level. If you are intermediate but lack confidence when it comes to talking and feel like you could really benefit from focusing on pronunciation, you will love it.
  • You can join whenever, either by buying the course or by becoming a monthly member giving you access to my French online courses from $10 / month. See more details about the membership below 🙂

 

Online course # 3: FRENCH DICTÉES

French online course dictées

 

In the FRENCH DICTÉES online course you will find 20 videos + 10 audio files to help & accompany you every step of the way throughout the course. Why 20 videos? Because there are 10 dictées in total, each focusing on one particular topic, and for each dictée I have prepared 2 videos. Let’s say the video focuses on both French past tenses called imparfait & passé composé. The first video will go though the grammar, the conjugation, and all the tips on these two past tenses to help you understand and remember how and when to use them. The second video will be the actual dictée, a short story written by me, describing everyday life situations conveniently packed with imparfait and passé composé verbs! Boom! Efficient! The dictée will also be read by me, slowly first and then a little faster, with a close up on my face so you can more easily recognize the words and copy the shapes I make to improve your own pronunciation.

 

Become a French language expert

How do you become an expert at anything? By focusing on one thing at a time.

I’ve made sure to categorize and isolate either a verb tense, a verb group, a grammar or vocabulary topic per dictée, so you can effectively focus and interiorize concepts separately, which makes it a lot easier to remember them.

 

Here’s what you’re going to learn

What grammar & conjugation points will each dictée focus on?

Dictée # 1: Present tense

Dictée # 2: Past tenses – imparfait & passé composé

Dictée # 3: Future tenses – futur proche & futur simple

Dictée # 4: Conditional, imparfait, asking questions

Dictée # 5: Imperative form

Dictée # 6: First group verbs all tenses

Dictée # 7: Second group verbs all tenses

Dictée # 8: Third group verbs all tenses

Dictée # 9: Numbers

Dictée # 10: Prepositions

Each dictée is a short story written by me about practical everyday life situations. This means that not only do you get to work on conjugation & grammar drills, but you also improve your conversational skills at the same time: a magic combination for your next trip to France!

 

Grow your confidence talking about practical everyday topics

The dictées will refer to common topics that you are very likely to hear or very likely to use to express yourself such as:

-Traveling to France

-Socializing

-Childhood memories

-Family dynamics

-Everyday life routines

-How to express your ideas, opinions, and dreams

 

Two videos per dictée

First video: key grammar and conjugation reminders explained very clearly so you feel prepared and confident entering each dictée.

Second video: the actual dictée. I’ve made sure to categorize and isolate either a verb tense, a verb group, a grammar or vocabulary topic, so you can effectively focus and interiorize concepts separately, which makes it a lot easier to remember them.

 

And for you challenge lovers over-achievers?

Yes I have prepared something just for you! I have also made 10 audio files, 1 per dictée, so that if you wish to, if you want it extra difficult, if you want to test yourself more deeply, you can solely rely on sound. Indeed there are many occasions in life where we hear a language but we don’t see it: speaking to someone on the phone or listening to the radio for instance.

 

20 videos? 10 audio files? What else?

This new FRENCH DICTÉES online course also comes with written files with both the French text along with the English translation, so that you can evaluate yourself when you’re done taking notes.

To summarize, you’ll be able to use video, audio, and written material.

 

Dictées worked for me, they’ll work for you!

Let me tell you, I LOVE dictées because THEY WORK. And clearly you realize this too and that is smart of you. So now let’s see how something as simple as a dictée can truly help you become a little bit French! Your French language learning experience has never been so easy, fun, and fruitful. You can learn French online and benefit from the flexibility working at your own pace offers, while having me with you the whole time.

 

Become a monthly member!

Learn French Online

My goal is to transform your French language learning experience. This is why I’ve decided to offer you a new way to learn French online and gain access to the French Truly Online School! Actually, more than 1 new way, you’ll have 3 plans to choose from so come and learn French online with me!

 

 

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