Yesterday, while reading Raymond’s autobiography ‘Poulidor intime’, I got to know that his childhood idol was the famous French boxer Marcel Cerdan who tragically died in 1949 in an airplane accident. Also Raymond mentioned the love story of Cerdan and the great singer Edith Piaf, the love story which’d been lasting until the boxer’s death.
This is Edith Piaf’s letter to Marcel Cerdan which Raymond added to his book:
‘Fight for your mother, for your children, for all the yours, for Paris which adores you and for me who is infatuated with you, who loves only your eyes, your hands, your mouth, everything about you. I’m sending you all the best that I have in me, take only what you like.’
Also Raymond expressed his own feelings about this tragic love story:
‘A little later I realised how much Edith Piaf loved Marcel Cerdan, how much Marcel Cerdan loved Edith Piaf. A love that lasted barely two years, interrupted by a brutal death. I read their correspondence. Great and beautiful letters of love.
A couple of years later Edith Piaf, inconsolable, wrote ‘L'Hymne à l'amour’. This song is dedicated to Cerdan, she had the courage to sing it in public, with tears in her eyes, without a need to make the slightest effort for interpretation. Set to the music of Marguerite Monnot, this song is a masterpiece. It’s a declaration of love. It’s a sorrow of a woman. It’s also an immense hope, with the idea of finding each other in the eternity. What a courage for this little nice woman, so small, so tiny, so miniature, to sing with such power and such talent about what she feels deep inside after the tragic death of her lover. ‘L'Hymne à l'amour ‘ is one of my favorite songs.’
After reading these words, I had tears in my eyes, really… it’s not even the story itself which also is heartbreaking but mostly those awe and deepness which are felt in Raymond’s words when he describes the story and his feelings about it.
And of course, there’s my shipping thrill too…
Firstly I imagined Jacques, retired, reading aloud the Edith Piaf’s letter to Raymond before the start of one of his Tours, knowing how much those letter and this story is important for Raymond and also trying to sound his own feelings which he doesn’t dare to express directly 🥺
And then I imagined Raymond, after Jacques’ death, listening to ‘L'Hymne à l'amour ‘, with his heart broken and with such deep grief inside his soul that he couldn’t even put it into tears… and, alas, understanding Edith Piaf fully and totally for the first time… 💔
Oh, Raymond, what have you done to me 😞
