Avalon Jazz Band - "Ménilmontant"

"Ménilmontant" was written by Charles Trenet in 1938 as a tribute to the famous Parisian neighborhood.

That’s where I left my heart
That’s where I come to find my inner self again
All my ardour,
All my joy….
When I see my little church again
Where the marriages were celebrated joyfully
When I see my old grey house
Where even the breeze
Speaks of yesteryear
They tell me
Lovely stories
Happy days of the past, I relive you
A meeting
A piece of music
Dreaming eyes which are in themselves a novel
A novel of poetic love full of wistfulness
Ménilmontant !

When the clock strikes twelve noon
Life reawakens
Everything resounds
With a thousand echoes
The bimbo has her lunch at the bistro
The gossipmonger
Reads her newspapers
Here is the green gate
Here is the open door
Which squeaks a little to say “Hallo, hallo
So you’ve come back?”

Ménilmontant, yes indeed, madam
That’s where I left my heart
That’s where I come to find my inner self again
All my ardour,
All my joy….
When I see again my little station
Where every train passed through cheerfully
I hear again the din
Of strange words
Of words of farewell
I am no poet
But I am moved,
And in my head
There are memories which will never fade
A winter evening
A piece of music
Very gentle eyes, yours, Mama,
A novel of poetic love
And full of wistfulness
Ménilmontant !