Tryphoon’s Lair

Chatting with Miles yesterday, we found this excellent video of what might probably have been the highlight of a prime time show on French television. I have actually no doubt that such a show did beat any other show been aired that evening in terms of ratings.

Now, to give you, readers, a bit of background, you might all know about Celine Dion but few of you might know about Johnny Halliday. 

Johnny has (per wikipedia) “had a 45-year career in music and is one of France’s biggest stars. He has completed 400 tours, had 18 platinum albums, performed in front of 15 million people, and sold 100 million records. Today Hallyday is still seen as a top stage performer, giving first class shows in crowded stadiums. Hallyday announced his retirement from performing on 3 December 2007 at the age of 64“. Almost 3 generations of French citizens know more about Johnny than about their president or their local mayor! He is simply our national hero, far ahead of Marianne or Napoleon (for my British fellows).

Once you’ll have suffered through the video (make sure you pass the 4:10 mark, it even gets better at that point), you’ll have pretty strong idea of what prime time TV is in France and what “real” music is about…

So now, forget about the constant striking, the grumpy cab drivers, the dirty restrooms (or just the hole in the floor a.k.a. Turkish WC), the arrogance of the Parisians (I once was one of them) or the fact that French people are mainly “monoglot” and “polygamist” and imagine yourself coming home from a long day at work, switching on your TV and suffering through this! No freaking way!

This is enough for me to delay (indefinitely) my return to France! Unless Miley Cyrus sings a duet with our national Johnny! ;-P