No, I’m not talking about that place in France. I’m talking about the song by Joe Dassin from the soundtrack of Wes Anderson’s latest offering, The Darjeeling Limited that we saw this past weekend. It’s the catchiest French song I know after Frère Jacques and it’s been stuck in my head all day.
Aux Champs-Elysées, aux Champs-Elysées
Au soleil, sous la pluie, à midi ou à minuit
Il y a tout ce que vous voulez aux Champs-Elysées
Listen to the song at the Hype Machine or download the song (and a couple other songs from the soundtrack) from Sugartown and tell me it’s not a catchy song!
The Darjeeling Limited is a good movie but the prequel short film, Hotel Chevalier, not so much. However, you should not judge the movie by the prequel (which I’m sure people only see because it has nekkid Natalie Portman). When they were showing Hotel Chevalier at the cinema, I just concentrated on the song playing in background — Where Do You Go To (My Lovely) by Peter Sarstedt — which never fails to make me laugh. It made the crappy short film somewhat bearable. The Darjeeling Limited itself really made up for the crappiness that is Hotel Chevalier. The cinematography is simply stunning. You should go see it!
I love this song: it reminds me of my childhood, and Les Champs-Élysées is also the place I often took my lover to when we were dating; we’re happily married now…
We miss Paris, France a lot, but we also like living in Waterloo, ON 🙂
The best version of this song is performed by NOFX.