Saturday, May 14, 2011

La Vie En Rose

Sitting in my favourite little coffee venue in Versailles -a cute little French café called Starbucks- reading, writing, blogging, and people watching is one of my favourite pastimes these days. It is just next to the town center, and close to the famous Château de Versailles, and one of the reasons I love it is because I’m pretty sure their music selection is handpicked for me daily. Sometimes it boasts beautiful French melodies, but more often –as with many shops and cafés in France- it plays familiar English music, which is always a nice taste of home for me. Some days you can hear the likes of Bob Marley, The Beatles, Aretha, or Stevie Wonder; and other days you’ll be humming along to Joss Stone, Regina Spektor, The Fray, Iron & Wine, Edward Sharpe, and Alicia Keys. Like I said, fabulous. Today, however, they are playing an instrumental version of “La Vie en Rose.”


I first became acquainted with the tune while watching Sabrina, one of my favourite Audrey Hepburn flicks. Since then, I find myself recognizing the melody all the time; whether it be on the soundtrack of another movie, on the radio while waiting for my train, or, like today, wafting from the speakers of a coffee shop. My favourite encounter with the song happened while I was wandering a small street in Montmartre and spotted a violinist serenading a young couple on the terrace of a quaint little restaurant. I eavesdropped a minute but the song was soon lost amidst the rest of the violinist’s medley. These are the kind of moments that make you fall in love with this place.




'La vie en rose' is the equivalent of 'life through rose colored glasses' as we say in english. Beautiful song, no?

1 comment:

  1. Oh Sabrina! Most wonderful film! Ever heard the Edith Piaf version of La Vie en Rose? Simply wonderful.

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