Paris in July!

I am super excited to announce that I will be participating in this year's Paris in July blogging event, hosted by Thyme for Tea and Bookbath!  (Thank you for hosting!  You are awesome!)  Paris in July runs from July 1st through the 31st and during July I will be posting numerous things about Paris and France.  I've already got a lot of fun things planned, including reviews of French books, reviews of books that take place in Paris, posts about French food and music, and so much more.  I am beyond excited, if you can't already tell. 

Tamara at Thyme for Tea has asked participants to post some recommendations  before Paris in July officially begins in July.  So I've decided to post about a wonderful French singer who I've just recently discovered, named Leo Ferre.

I discovered him quite by accident (or not totally by accident because I was googling French poet Arthur Rimbaud who I'm a bit obsessed with) and discovered that this French singer from around the 1960s put a bunch of Rimbaud's poetry to music.  I needed it.  Itunes has plenty of Leo Ferre, but not what I was looking for.  So I checked ebay and found the 2 volumes of the record and finally have them at home with my new turntable and was finally able to take a listen! 

Leo's voice is gorgeous, and mixed with Rimbaud's beautiful poetry, it's enough to make me melt.  For real.  The album I have is extremely hard to come by, at least in the USA.  Perhaps it's more readily available in France?  Anyway, Ferre's music is so beautifully and typically French that I'm a bit obsessed and am on the lookout for more of his records.  You can find him on itunes (just not the Rimbaud/Verlaine stuff like I said).  Here's a youtube video I found of Ferre doing a song to the words of Baudelaire's "Albatros", one of my favorite poems ever.  It kinda shows his style, but my album is a bit more "jazzy".

I can't wait to share more fun French stuff with you all once july comes around!