Les grands boulevards [English translation]

I like strolling on the big boulevards.

There are so many things, so many things,

So many things to see.

You can only choose at random.

You give yourself blisters

Zigzagging among the crowd.

I like the houses and the bazaars,

The display windows, the lotteries,

And the chatty peddlers

Who rattle off their lies.

It makes the time pass

And you forget your unhappiness.

I'm not a millionaire,

I'm a lathe operator at Citroen.

I can't pay for my distractions

Every day of the week.

I also have my little obsessions

That bring me pleasure and cost nothing.

So as soon as work is over,

I walk through the "porte Saint-Denis"

And the Italian boulevards.

I like strolling on the big boulevards.

There are so many things, so many things,

So many things to see.

We see days of hope,

Days of anger

That bring out the working class.

Here vibrates the heart of Paris

Always passionate, sometimes rebellious

With its chants, its cries.

And the pretty moments of history

Are written everywhere along

Our big boulevards.

~ ~ ~

I like strolling on the big boulevards.

On summer nights when everybody

Likes to go to bed late.

We get a glimpse of

Two angelic eyes

That we followed to the republic.

Then I get back to my little hotel;

My room with the window

Under a corner of the sky.

Where they reach out to me like a call

All of the distant sounds, all of the glimmers

Of the charming world

Of the big boulevards.

• Artist:Yves Montand