From an early age I formed an association with Louis Armstrong’s version of La Vie en Rose and Paris. When I heard the song I would imagine myself walking the streets of Montmartre, going down into the Louvre and sitting on the lawn of the Eiffel Tower. Now having travelled to Paris multiple times the song triggers memories and images not from a 2D image in a travel magazine or the footage from a movie. Memories of sitting at the top of the Sacre Coeur looking out over Paris, listening to the man playing the Violin down below, his subtle sounds filling the dome. I feel my heart accelerate, my breathe quickens. Even if I am on the other side of the world I feel I am there for the first time experiencing the breathlessness of a place that I find truly beautiful and magical.
Back in Paris again wandering through the empty streets on a Sunday afternoon – exploring neighbourhoods I have never previously visited and still find the charming delights architecture in Paris offers. Seeing old ladies pulling their carts along with their groceries, a fresh baguette sticking up out from the corner of the cover. Mothers dragging their excitable children along to the nearest square or park and the stray lost tourist hovering over a map trying to determine how to get to the Arc de Triumph. Every city has these same people, however in Paris it still feels unique.
I have spent days aimlessly walking, talking, eating and looking all over Paris. Always I set out aimlessly with no purpose or end destination and never dissatisfied with what I find (except my horrible lack of improvement with my French). I don’t need an iPod or mp3 player to keep me company as the sounds of Paris are enough company with the faint music of La Vie en Rose in the background of my mind. Paris is one of those places you either love or hate. I have met many travellers from both groups but will always find myself in the love category as I still get excited every visit and constantly losing my breath as if I had run a marathon.
Walking through Paris you almost forget the Eiffel Tower exists as you are constantly distracted with so many other delights to the eyes, ears and nose. Then you turn that one corner, you stop in your tracks. You forget to breathe as the tower is there again in front of you. The more you see the Eiffel Tower in this way the more beautiful it gets and you start to form a relationship through the continual game of cat and mouse. It hides behind buildings and surprises you over and over again. It draws you in and you venture closer and closer picking up fresh berries from the many produce stores, macaroons and a baguette from one of the bountiful patisseries and you are there set for a picnic in the sunshine feeling successful on finally winning the chase.
Lying on a makeshift mattress by the window of an apartment less than a stone throw from the Eiffel Tower on my last night in Paris I listen to La Vie en Rose. I feel myself lifted out the window and intro the streets of Paris below as Louis Armstrong’s husky mellow voice sings. I absorb the sounds of Paris packing up to go home to their families, the chef across the street dancing as he whistles a tune to himself. I drift off to “Everyday words turn into love songs…” knowing I am going to wake to the sounds of the Patisserie down below opening and the Parisians bustling to get the first fresh baguette for the day.
Louis Armstrong – La Vie en Rose
(Click on image to play)