The weekend Marie and I went to Montreal to help celebrate Amy's 7th birthday we attended a concert by one of Marie's favorite French artists, popular in the 70s and 80s, Michel Fugain. It was held at the L'Étoile Banque Nationale, a cozy performing arts theater in Brossard, across the bridge and off the island. Before going in we ate for the first time at a Copper Branch restaurant. They have what they call a Plant-Powered menu, meatless and absolutely delicious. The concert was sold out but we had great seats just a few rows from the front and enjoyed the proximity as much of the show included Michel Fugain talking and joking with the crowd about his life and the story behind his songs - Un belle histoire, Je n'aurai pas le temps, Fais comme l'oiseau, Jusqu'a demain peut-etre, Ring a ding, and many, many more which I all recognized and sang along with. He was accompanied by two guitar players, an electric pianist and his wife who sang some backup and occasionally came forward on stage to do a few very personal love songs. It was all in French but he spoke Parisian (or should I say Grenoblese, where he was born in 1942), which is so much more easier to understand than the Québécois patois (for me anyway), made us laugh till we cried and, when he sang, it was obvious how the maturity of the years had mellowed his voice. After two hours which seemed to fly by he ended with one of his biggest hits, Chante, which we all joined in singing. All in all it was a great treat for Marie and one which she will long remember. gws
