Les canchons din ch’nord
There are so many well-known songs from the North of France, so I’ll stick to the ones that are an important part of my childhood, either because I learnt them at school, heard them during ducasses or every Sunday during family dinner. Some are in standard French, others in Ch’ti (the picard-derived dialect spoken in the Nord and Nord-Pas-de-Calais).
Les Corons - Pierre Bachelet
“Au Nord, c’était les corons La Terre, c’était le charbon Le Ciel c’était l’horizon, Les Hommes des mineurs de fond”
La Marseillaise is for the people of France (and beyond); Les Corons is for the people of the North, it is the région’s anthem. Certainly the most famous song about the région too - just hearing the beginning makes me cry, this song is home. The corons are the working-class housing found mainly in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais and Belgium that was built for miners: all the houses are made of ‘red’ brick, and all look alike. This song is both a celebration of the région despite its lack of natural beauties (”Et j’avais des terrils à défaut de montagnes/And I had terrils instead of montains, the terrils are artificial hills made of coals you find everywhere here) and also denounces the miners' terrible working conditions, who died of illness (silicose) or in accidents, and always battled for their rights (hence the reference to Jean Jaurès).
(Another favourite version by the Stentors: it really sounds like an anthem then, and it was shot in front of our most famous mine and its terrils).
Les gens du Nord - Enrico Macias
“Les gens du Nord
Ont dans leurs yeux le bleu qui manque à leur décor
Les gens du Nord Ont dans le coeur le soleil qu’ils n’ont pas dehors”
Very, very well known by all here and across the country - a beautiful song about the kindness and bravery of the people of the North; in other words, quite the romantic portrayal of the place. Here again, the coal becomes mountains.
Galibot
“Galibot, tu seras Galibot Galibot, tu seras - Galibot !”
This song is terribly sad, because as a child I loved it, it sounds so joyful and hopeful; but in fact the joy here belongs to two parents and their child, who are so very happy and proud he is finally old enough to become a galibot, which was the name given to 13-year-old boys working in the mines.
Mademoiselle From Armentière - Line Renaud
“Elle ne savait même pas parler qu’elle savait déjà chanter
Mad’moiselle from Armentière !”
Oh, we love this one a lot. It is the story of a demoiselle from the city of Armentière (who knew how to sing before she could speak according to the song), who married an English general, hence the Mademoiselle from Armentière. It is based on a true ‘story’: her name was Marie Lecocq, and former British soldiers erected a statue in her honour in the Armentière hospital. The song became an hymn sung by the Commonwealth soldiers during the Great War, and was originally written by a British officer.
Le P’tit Quinquin - Alexandre Desrousseaux (poem), Raoul (singer)
“Ainsi, l'aut' jour eun' pauv' dintellière,
In amiclotant sin p'tit garchon
Qui d'puis tros quarts d'heure, n'faijot qu'braire,
Tâchot d'linformir par eun' canchon.
Ell' li dijot : Min Narcisse,
D'main, t'aras du pain n'épice
Du chuc à gogo
Si t'es sache et qu'te fais dodo ! “
This one is in Ch’ti, and is a lullaby. The lyrics are about a mother begging her child to go to sleep, and promising him all sorts of treats as a reward.
Un Clair de Lune à Maubeuge - Bourvil
“Tout ça n'vaut pas
Le doux soleil de Roubaix (coin-coing ! vous êtes ridicule!)
Tout ça n'vaut pas Une croisière sur la Meuse
Tout ça n'vaut pas faire du sport au Kremlin biceps”
If you want to learn about the geography of the North, this is your song: it lists all its famous towns (even the sweet sun of Tourcoing...).
Les Tomates - Renaud
“I mingeot des tomates
Des tomates des tomates
Cheul pauf' garchon i savot bin
Qui-étot marqué par el destin
Mais i s'disot pour es' faire eun' rason
Ch'arot pu ête l'sason des melons”
In Ch’ti - it is the sad story of a boy named Edmond whose destiny was to be unhappy and unable to fulfill his dreams, as the song states he cannot escape his fate (tomatoes): he works as a gardener and only tomatoes grow in his garden; he hopes he will get watermelons, and never does; he wants a wife, never has one; goes away and hopes to become a singer, people throw tomatoes at him; the song ends by stating he didn’t resist the harshness of life, and is buried in his native town. Tomatoes grow on his grave. We learnt this stanza after stanza every week at school: when after all of this he didn’t get a happy end, I was apparently the only one positively devastated.
Petit Jean revenant de Lille
“Petit Jean revenant de Lille,
Co, co, co, se dira la, la !
Petit Jean revenant de Lille,
Tout chargé de rémolas,
Tout chargé de rémolas.”
A traditional song from Lille, telling the story of Jean coming back from work. He is about to eat his supper, but his cat steals the meat: who is he going to punish, the cat or his wife? The former will scratch him, the second will get revenge -thus, it is wiser not to do anything. We learnt this one at school and until the beginning of the year I thought Lille was l’île (well, he could be coming back from an isle if he was... Breton), and I am still shaken by the discovery we were in fact talking about our regional capital city.
