Another French song much loved by the English, not because we understand it, but because it somehow captures what we want the French to be like. It is Jean Sablon’s Le Fiacre. I have it in my collection of 78rpm records and it was regularly played on the BBC’s Sunday record request programme Two Way Family Favourites in the 1950s and 60s. It was almost as popular as Charles Trenet’s La Mer.
The song is a rather risqué lyric about amorous doings in the back of horse drawn cab. Sounds of delight from within. But Madame’s husband passes by and recognises her voice. Indignant he rushes forward into the road to confront the adulterous pair. Sadly(?) the road surface is wet and he slips, and is knocked down and run over by the very cab containing Madame and her young lover.
So, a happy ending.
French insouciance is so alien to literal minded Englishmen like me. We can’t understand it. Perhaps that’s why we love it so.
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