La Vie en Rose

Even before I had the idea to move to France, I had the idea to improve my French, in a nod to my then French boyfriend. I looked for a French tutor on Craig’s List, but didn’t get any responses to my emails (why, then, were they advertising on the List?), so my friend Erick suggested I check out the Alliance Française. He didn’t know it in Washington, but he said that the Alliance was a French-sponsored organization in most foreign cities; when I looked for it online, I found it with no problem.

Ensconced on Wyoming Avenue in a lovely townhouse just north of Dupont Circle, the Alliance Francaise of Washington (http://www.francedc.org/) offers French classes, tutoring, an active library of books, CDs and DVDs, and lots of programming for its members. I joined it in January 2007, and immediately signed up for a mid-level French class. (The class, held on Saturday mornings, was an interesting mix of Washingtonians, mostly foreign-born, in which I was by far the best speaker – most of them were learning it for the first time. I gathered that many of them were being sponsored by their workplaces as well; although the class began at 10 and ended at 1, my classmates took a liberal view of when they actually needed to be in the classroom – some actually showed up at noon at times. Fascinating!)

Among the programming offered by the Alliance Française is a variety of French film viewing opportunities. It was through the Alliance that I was introduced to the E Street Cinema, in downtown Washington. For some reason, after years of watching foreign flicks at the Shirlington movie theater, I was unaware of the E Street offerings – and frankly, E Street was far more convenient by Metro (Metro Center)! The movie that I signed up to attend at the cinema was “La Vie en Rose,” telling the compelling story of the French chanteuse, Edith Piaf, her music and her early death. I think I was motivated to sign up for the ticket after seeing the listing in the weekly Alliance-emailed newsletter; this was June 2007, and I was in my mode of wanting to submerse myself in all things French, and here was a free opportunity to do so. Also, when I went to the Alliance to pick up my ticket for the movie, I got a free CD of the songtrack, which was pretty cool.

I enjoyed the movie, with Marion Cotillard in the lead role (she received the Oscar for Best Actress for the movie in 2008), which was shown in French, with English subtitles. I sat next to some other Francophiles in the movie theater, who were equally entranced by the movie. It was dark and disturbing, but it was the music that was captivating and Marion’s performance was compelling.

In January 2008, the Alliance again offered a viewing of “La Vie en Rose” at one of its Monday evening Ciné evenings at the Wyoming Avenue location. Interestingly, I almost didn’t remember having seen the film nine months earlier; and later, once I had, wondered why I had signed up to see it again. But I was happy I had; this time, I watched the movie in French, with French subtitles. At this point too, I had decided to move to France, and had signed up for private French tutoring lessons (my first session would be that same week). Knowing the story already, I didn’t need the English to follow the story line, and given the slangy French spoken by the lead character, it was immensely helpful to read what was being said on the screen. I’ve often thought during my first weeks here in France, I wish I had French subtitles!, as I’m trying to understand conversation around me. Being a visual person, this would help. But I’m getting along…

So, given my introduction to and immersion in Edith Piaf, when I was walking along a street in Nice a few weeks ago, a flyer stuck on the parked cars in the street caught my attention. It advertised a Mass in celebration of the 45th anniversary of Edith Piaf’s death, at a nearby Catholic Church, scheduled for early October. The flyer also indicated that there would be music before and after the church service. I knew from the movie that Edith Piaf had spent her final days in Grasse, the city where Priscilla lives, northwest of Nice. So the affection for her in this region made some sense. But another part of me thought that such an event would be a little over the top. But I took a flyer with me, anyway. I’m looking for ways to get to know my new city, and this would be one way to do it.

So, yesterday at 5 p.m., I put on a respectable outfit, and headed over to the Église Saint Pierre d’Arène on rue de France, about 10 blocks from me. I found the church, and as advertised, a woman was performing songs made famous by Edith Piaf on the church steps, accompanied by an instrument called a limonaire (not found in my French dictionary). The limonaire is essentially what many Americans would recognize as a player piano, except that the player is a box, which the singer, Domino, wound with a crank as she sang, and the “recorded” music played as she cranked. I noticed people going in and out of the church as she was singing, so after a few moments, I too walked up the steps into the church. I found the church full of people sitting in the nave, awaiting the start of the 6 p.m. mass. In my concert-going with Priscilla in France, she has typically encouraged us to be at church concerts well ahead of their advertised start. And this has served us well in securing seats, as free concerts in France, as just in about any other place, are well-attended. So, seeing the crowd in St. Pierre, I quickly found myself a seat about mid-nave, and hunkered down for the 40 minute wait. I had brought a paperback book with me, in case of this very situation, and although the church was pretty dark, managed to get in about 20 minutes of reading. (am reading a first novel written by a Barnard alum and a former consultant who worked for me at PwC, Marisha Pessl, called "Special Topics in Calamity Physics").

The mass started at 6. This was my first French Catholic service, and I thought, fittingly focused on a singer. It was a standard mass, but with Edith Piaf’s music sung throughout, “Mea Culpa” and “Les mȏmes de la cloche” sung by Domino; “Les 3 cloches” by a young boy, and a recording of Edith singing “Jerusalem.” It was pretty moving. The service included a presentation of a plaque naming a street “L’Allée Edith Piaf” (not sure where in the city it will be) to the Conseil Générale of the region.

After the service, the crowd stayed in their seats for the recital to follow. The program listed eight selections that were to be sung by Domino and another singer, Gil Florini. The selections included the most famous songs of Piaf, including “La vie en rose,” “Padam,” and “Rien de rien” (at least those are the ones I know from the movie!). This was what many of those in the audience had come for, I think, as the applause following these performances was enthusiastic and sustained. The singer Gil Florini, a man past middle age, reminding me of someone like Neil Diamond, drew the most applause, for his belt-it-out style – which was pretty Edith Piaf-like. (I have since learned that M. Florini is a priest in the church; which explains the exhuberant applause.)

I left the church happy to have taken part in a Niçoise event; also to have participated in my first French mass, and having been inspired by an evening of uplifting music.