As long as our parents sent us to buy the bread, we know this pleasure that Anne Sylvestre describes: the crusty baguette, the softness of the crumb, the crunchiness of the crust, this intoxication of not being able to stop eating the fresh bread, even if we know that we risk being yelled at at home – by parents who were once scolded for the same reason…
So we better understand the emotion that grips, even in the political world, when a chain of hypermarkets announces that it is going to cut the price of baguettes. It wouldn’t be possible in any other country, but – lo and behold – we are the country of the baguette. Listen, for example, to how a Japanese artist, Esie, represents France – and in French – in a 2008 title.
In the first episode of These songs that make the news this weekend, you hear excerpts from:
Anne Sylvester, The baguette, 2000
Esia, eat your wand, 2008
Catherine Le Forestier The Frightened, 1998
S.Pri Black, Sky Fall, 2015
Christian Capezzone, song of bread, 1849 (1978 recording)
Syrano, The price of things, 2012
Collette Nicholas, For a piece of bread, 1975
Jean Poiret, The thousand-franc cow, 1961
Nana Mouskouri, For a few cents, 1971
Esia, eat your wand, 2008
You can also follow the news of this column on Twitter.
Remember: during the summer of 2019, La Playlist de Françoise Hardy was a crossing of the musical baggage of an author, composer and performer considered as the arbiter of the elegance of pop in France.
In July and August 2017, we spent A Summer in Souchon, during which Alain Souchon guided us on a tasty walk through a lifetime of love for song.
All summer 2016, in the company of Vincent Delerm, we wandered around in La Playlist Amoureuse de la Chanson, truant exploration of popular heritage. You can also extend the delicacies of this summer chronicle with the French song lovers dictionary, co-published by Plon and franceinfo.