Le Temps De L'amour
Joyous June full of music, dance, and other lovely things
Voilà! June is now in full flow. One of my favourite periods of the year, not least because my birthday falls in early June. We were often in Germany by then when I was young, in the early 70s, and my Omi would make a fresh strawberry tart on a soft sponge with homemade custard and gelatine and heaping’s of real whipped cream. There were a few slices of other cakes from the bakery – cheesecake, butter cake, plum cake, sacher torte etc. We’d have our coffee and cakes out in the garden, under the afternoon shade of a tree, with a festive table decorated with spring flowers. Omi’s sisters, sometimes other relatives and cousins, and all my little female friends from around our little street would come to celebrate with us.
Stuffed with cakes, we’d go out into the street in search of the boys (and my first crush!) for some fun and games. There were about 20 kids living on the road between the ages of 6-16 and, as a one-way, U-shaped street with very little traffic, we really had the run of the road. Happy days! For us anyway! Some of the older residents were not impressed with our raucous antics. Curtains would twitch and every now and then a voice would shout to us to keep it down or to get out of the garden.
Later in the summer when the cherries were heavy on the giant tree next door, we’d all scamper through the bush to climb it and stuff our little faces full of the ripe juicy cherries. The owner of the lot where the cherry tree lived would come out his front door and shout at us to get off his tree. There were sometimes as many as 12 of us up there. Those on the lower branches would climb down reluctantly, faces dripping with sweet cherry juice. Those up higher would hug the branches and hide amongst the leaves till he went back inside. My Omi pretended to be annoyed at the cherry stains on my summer dresses but had a hard time hiding the twinkle in her eye and the little smile twitching in the corner of her mouth.
June, beginning of summer! Le Temps De L’amour - the time of love, of friends, of adventures… the glorious days of youth! How lucky we were. Ahhh l’amour…
Sadly, this June we lost the delightful Françoise Hardy. I love her and her music. All of those lovely chansons from French female singers of the 60s and 70s… Bardot, Barbara, Birkin (adopted French), and Hardy. Although I have sometimes confused Hardy with Jane Birkin…
As two leading lights in a distinct scene and a clear sphere for style and sonic inspiration, they struck up a friendship. Upon the news of Birkin’s death, Hardy said, “It was above all her personality, everything she exuded, her way of being which seduced me.” ~ Hardy on Birkin
I share that sentiment for both women, Hardy and Birkin. I listened to them a lot in my 20s when I was studying French literature and had romantic notions of moving to Paris.
I’ve visited Paris many times over the years and it was the first foreign city my first husband and I visited together back in the mid 80s. The city of light, of romance and love. We had a funny little attic room for a few nights and spent our days lolling about various gardens and exploring museums and galleries. A beautiful memory - young and in love.
Remember that iconic Malcolm McLaren song - Paris Paris! It came out in 1994, when I was in my early 30s, a few years after my divorce and the same year I first met my current husband. The song is from the album Paris is Jazz and was a collaboration with Catherine Deneuve.
There is actually another collaboration on the Paris is Jazz album with Hardy singing in French and English - she wrote the lyrics.
Le parfum sucré de vos roses s'évapore
Et moi je compose
Vous ne m'aurez jamais donné
Que le baiser du condamné
These flowers in your sweet hand is
Just how I would feel to you
If you could only touch me now
Just a ghostly paper sigh
Till you kiss me back to life
I'm soon to breathe the roses bloom
A thousand kisses say goodbye
And then they say you'll never die
A lonely fanfare blew
And then they sing to you
A thousand kisses say goodbye~ lyrics of Revenge of the Flowers
In my late 40s, I rediscovered Hardy et al and still often listen to their lovely voices. I find the wispy, somewhat sad and moody, romantic, melodic tunes sweetly calming and uplifting. One of my favourites by Hardy is La mer. I can listen to it on loop for ages. And I do! I often dance around in our beautiful garden here to those wonderful sounds of the late 60s and early 70s - here on our new adventure, a second honeymoon phase for us, rediscovering love and joy, and our youthful bohemian spirits.
Much has been written about Hardy in the past week. She was an icon, an inspiration, a muse to many - to ordinary women and celebrities alike. And, one of the few women in the day to write her own material!
French singer Françoise Hardy, who shot to international stardom in the 1960s, has died aged 80. Hardy became a pop icon in the 1960s with Mick Jagger describing her as his ideal woman. Bob Dylan also wrote a poem for her and her androgynous style was imitated around the world. Hardy’s first single in 1962 sold a million copies, making her an instant star of the "Ye-Ye" (after the Beatles "yeah, yeah, yeah") generation of post-war French pop singers. "Singing is not something that comes easily to me," Hardy, who thought of herself as a melody-maker first and foremost, told the French-German Arte channel in a documentary. But soon a parallel career as a cover girl beckoned, and the singer's thick fringe and bohemian style were seen everywhere. ~ Jacob Phillips / The Standard
Françoise Hardy, French pop singer and fashion muse, dies aged 80
Françoise Hardy: France’s girlish yé-yé star was a groundbreaking musical artist
She left us her own version of her life in her memoir, The Despair of Monkeys and Other Trifles. This excerpt with reminiscences on Serge Gainsbourg offers some insight into her day to day.
This France24 video gives an overview of the depth and breadth of her work as an artist - musician, actress, writer, and cultural icon. An impressive and utterly unpretentious woman!
The only film I can recall seeing her in was her cameo in the quirky What's New Pussycat (1965). A good year 1965! Quirky? I was about to say funny but it’s been so long since I’ve seen it that I can’t remember if it is actually funny. But then again, it was written by Woody Allen and starred Peter Sellers among others so…
In 2018, she released her 28th and final studio collection, Personne d'autre.
“What a person sings is an expression of what they are,” she told the Observer at the time of its release. “Luckily for me, the most beautiful songs are not happy songs. The songs we remember are the sad, romantic songs.”
Luckily for us too! Her final album is brilliant. Thanks for the music, beautiful you. I’ll be dancing in my garden all summer and beyond to your tunes, young at heart and in love…
Well, that’s me. Your turn! Any thoughts to share? I’d be delighted to learn about singer/songwriters who inspire and delight you! What’s your favourite month? Your favourite city? Drop me a note in the comments below. Would love to hear from you…
ciao per ora bellissime sorelle / bye for now beautiful sisters
F ox
PS Come join me in the Facebook community group of the same name where there is more space for people to initiate discussion and might be fun to start a little book or film club together! Search Facebook for @bluestockings or go directly using this link The Blue Stockings Society - women who think, write, create
PPS Curious about my own humble art making? You can find me on instagram @F_ox and/or visit my website.