The song feels good in the bistro

As our cafés, our gastos, our bars and our harbors begin the process of recognition as intangible cultural heritage of humanity, let’s return to the songs from the bar.

“Ah what a dream to be a bistro”, Pauline Carton and Pierjac sang to us in 1962, covering a song dating from 1915. And it’s a useful reminder, as the number of cafés continues to decline in France – and the Ministry of Culture recently announced the inclusion in the inventory of intangible cultural heritage – I quote – “social and cultural practices in Bistros and Cafés in France”an essential step so that our bars (and therefore our “give us that boss”) can be included in the inventory of the intangible heritage of humanity.

Because there is something of heritage, in fact, in our bistro habits, like at Juliette Gréco and at Henri Tachan, which tell of the harbors of yesteryear.

In the first episode of These songs that make the news this weekend you hear excerpts from:

Pauline Carton and Pierjac, What dream of being a bistro, 1915 (1962 recording)

Juliette Gréco, John of the Providence of God, 1964

Henri Tachan, At Bougnat, 1969

Francis Lemarque, In Paris, 1946

Jean-Philippe André, George, 1978

Jacques Debronckart, Ernest, a sudden blank, 1969

Jehan, If you buy me a drink, 1998

Bernard Dimey, At the Lux Bar, 1967

Renaud, If you buy me a drink, 2022

Mouloudji, One evening at Gerpil, 1977

Bernard Dimey, Alphonse’s Bistrot, 1968

Charles Aznavour, The Room and the Terrace, 1982

Juliet, Apple rum, 2011

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