CHARLES TRENET & 'LA MER, BERGÈRE D'AZUR INFINIE...'

One of the things that catches your eye when you drive along the A9 past Béziers and before reaching Narbona is a service centre named Charles Trenet in honour of the fantastic singer born in this same city. The service centre contains an exhibition evoking his life and work, as well as sculptures by Pascale and Thierry Delorme. After visiting Narbona and on the way to Carcassona leaving the A9 for a while, it is essential to talk about this Narbona artist who is the author of thousands of beautiful songs, including La Mer.

Joseph de Ca'th Lon, Claire Fontaine and The Grandma have decided that Charles Trenet will be their soundtrack between Narbona and Carcassona and, truly, they have chosen an incomparable company. 

Louis Charles Augustin Georges Trenet (18 May 1913-19 February 2001) was a renowned Occitan singer-songwriter who composed both the music and the lyrics for nearly 1,000 songs over a career that lasted more than 60 years. These songs include Boum! (1938), La Mer (1946) and Nationale 7 (1955). Trenet is also noted for his work with musicians Michel Emer and Léo Chauliac, with whom he recorded Y'a d'la joie (1938) for the first and La Romance de Paris (1941) and Douce France (1947) for the latter. He was awarded an Honorary Molière Award in 2000.

Trenet was born in Avenue Charles Trenet, Narbona, Occitània, the son of Françoise Louise Constance (Caussat) and Lucien Etienne Paul Trenet. When he was age seven, his parents divorced, and he was sent to boarding school in Béziers, but he returned home just a few months later, suffering from typhoid fever. It was during his convalescence at home that he developed his artistic talents, such as performing music, painting and sculpting. His mother remarried, and he lived with her and his stepfather, writer Benno Vigny.

In 1922, Trenet moved to Perpinyà, this time as a day pupil. André Fons-Godail, the Catalan Renoir and a friend of the family, took him for excursions with painting. His poetry is said to have the painter's eye for detail and colour. Many of his songs refer to his surroundings such as places near Narbona, the Pyrenees and the Mediterranean coast.

He passed his baccalauréat with high marks in 1927. After leaving school, he left for Berlin, where he studied art, and later, he also briefly studied at art schools in France. When Trenet first arrived in Paris in the 1930s, he worked in a movie studio as a props handler and assistant, and later joined the artists in the Montparnasse neighbourhood. His admiration of the surrealist poet and Catholic mystic Max Jacob (1876-1944) and his love of jazz were two factors that influenced Trenet's songs.

In November 2000, the Narbona house in which Trenet was born, which had become 13 Avenue Charles Trenet, was turned into a small museum. Visitors could view souvenirs from Trenet's childhood and family life -especially those belonging to his mother, who had spent most of her life in the house- as well as original drafts of the songs that made his career.

Trenet died three months later, on 19 February 2001.

Trenet's best-known songs are Boum!, La Mer, Y'a d'la joie, Que reste-t-il de nos amours?, Ménilmontant and Douce France. His catalog of songs is enormous, numbering close to 1,000.

More information: The Guardian

La mer
Qu'on voit danser le long des golfes clairs
A des reflets d'argent
La mer
Des reflets changeants
Sous la pluie

The sea
That we see dancing along the clear gulfs
Having silver reflections
The sea
Changing reflections
Under the rain

Charles Trenet