The Video

For those who didn't get enough pictures in the blog, here is the video:

Conti Vacation

About the music:

La Marseillaise is the French national anthem.  Originally called “War Song for the Army of the Rhine" it was written and composed by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle in 1792. The French National Convention adopted it as the Republic's anthem in 1795. The name of the song is due to first being sung on the streets by volunteers from Marseille.

An American in Paris is a symphonic tone poem by the American composer George Gershwin, written in 1928. Inspired by the time Gershwin had spent in Paris, it evokes the sights and energy of the French capital in the 1920s and is one of his best-known compositions.  Gershwin composed An American in Paris on commission from the New York Philharmonic. He scored the piece for the standard instruments of the symphony orchestra plus celesta, saxophones, and automobile horns.

Far and Away performed by Enya is selected for the lyrics.  The French would be disappointed that Ireland’s best known female solo artist is singing about their scenery.  Enya continued to enjoy steady success during the 1990s and 2000s; her 2000 album A Day Without Rain sold 15 million copies,^[4] and became the top selling new age album of the 2000s in the US, according to Nielsen SoundScan.^[5] She received the world's best-selling female award at the World Music Awards in 2001.^[6] She is also Ireland's best-selling solo musician.

I Can See for Miles is a song written by Pete Townshend of The Who, recorded for the band's 1967 album, The Who Sell Out.^[2] It was the only song from the album to be released as a single, on 14 October 1967. It remains The Who's biggest hit single in the US to date, and their only one to reach the Top 10 .  The day we visited the Tour de Eiffel we could see for many, many, many miles.

Free Man In Paris is a song written by Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell. It appeared on her 1974 album Court and Spark, as well as her live album Shadows and Light. It is one of her most popular songs. The song is about music agent/promoter David Geffen, a close friend of Mitchell in the early 1970s, and describes Geffen during a trip Geffen and Mitchell made to Paris with Robbie and Dominique Robertson.  It is reported that Geffen spent so much time with Joni Mitchell that it perturbed singer and song writer Carly Simon, who also sought attention from the music mogul.  Her frustrations are expressed in the lyrics of the song, You’re So Vain.

Sun King appears on the Beatles White Album and is credited to Lennon and McCartney although interviews with the artists suggest it was largely Lennon’s song.  The lyrics are the result of horseplay and joking during a recording session.  Louis the XIV called himself the sun king because, according to history, he said the sun shone upon him and his kingdom during his 72 year reign.  The Palaces at Versailles used half of the Frances gross national product during their construction.  A staff of 5,000 or more worked on the properties.  The view from the hall of mirrors out to the gardens that show the reflecting pond is 8 miles in distance.  The national mall in Washington looks just like it.

Song at a French Café is a typical Parisian melody.  The combination of accordions and string instruments like the mandolin are heard often in traditional French melodies.  Although our drivers in France were likely to listen to Maroon 5 on the radio and sing with the lyrics, street artists play accordions to entertain the tourists. 

When I Grow Up is one of the company numbers from the musical Matilda.  Written by Dennis Kelly, with music and lyrics by Tim Minchin. It is based on the children's novel of the same name by Roald Dahl. It concerns a precocious 5-year-old girl who loves to read and how she overcomes family and school obstacles and helps her teacher to reclaim her life.  It debuted in the West End in London which is where we saw it during our stopover in London.

Closer to Fine was written by Emily Sailers of the Indigo Girls.  Indigo Girls is the second studio album and first major label release by the Indigo Girls. It was originally released in 1989 on Epic Records. It was reissued and remastered in 2000 with two bonus tracks.  The album received mostly excellent critical reviews, and went gold after six months and eventually went platinum. The duo was nominated for a Best New Artist Grammy (losing to Milli Vanilli), and won one for Best Contemporary Folk Recording. The selection of the lyrics in this section of the video is done because the artist is suggesting she is confounded by certain mysteries of life.  She probably did not have Stonehenge in mind.

Norwegian Wood is another Beatles song, also written largely by John Lennon.  He told an interviewer the song is about the women he used to sleep with (while married to Cynthia) who would take him up to their flats and try to pass off cheap paneling as fine Norwegian Wood.  While that has no real meaning to our day in Bergen it is probably one of the better known references to Norway in music.

The Secret Garden, a musical, yields the melody that sounds like the one heard as our train from Flam chugs towards the Kjosfossen waterfalls.  That melody is also played on loud speakers when tourists come to gaze upon the water.  As part of the performance young ballet students from the Norway School of Ballet, dance on the rocks at various parts of the falls.  While there is more than one dancer it is supposed to appear as if it is the same woman who appears and vanishes.  They portray a mythical creature called a Huldra in Norwegian, a temptress of the forest.  For the ballet students it is their summer job.

Peer Gynt Op. 23 is the incidental music to Henrik Ibsen's 1867 play of the same name, written by the Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg in 1875. It premiered along with the play on 24 February 1876 in Christiania (now Oslo).  Edvard Grieg is Norway’s best known composer and Henrik Ibsen is Norway’s best known playwright.