Le musicien du rue Mouffetard

No matter how many times I travel to Paris, if I"m there on a Sunday, I make my way to rue Mouffetard. The locals gather at the bottom of the street and sing and dance and allow me to take endless photos.

L'accordéoniste IV

What's dancing in the street on rue Mouffetard with out the obligatory French accordion?? Of course Christian Bassoul is the originator of this neighborhood gathering, but I've found others that take his place from time to time.

100 French Strangers- Christian Bassoul

 French Stranger #82

In the early 1900's street musicians would sell sheet music to the people on the streets of Paris and everyone would sing.  Meet Christian Bassoul, the man who has revived that delightful tradition.  One sunny Sunday morning, June 2009,  as we walked down rue Mouffetard on our way to the Jardin des Plantes, we came across a crowd of people having the most wonderful  time singing favorite French songs and dancing with each other and willing spectators.  Since that time, whenever I'm in Paris on a Sunday, you will find me right there.  I wouldn't miss it.  This past January, I took some  prints from previous trips and shared them with some of the singers.  Viviane, who I've photographed many times, spoke some English and was very kind to spend time with me.  Today their leader  and accordianist Christian Bassoul.  You can see Christian in this YouTube video from many years ago here. 

I have made contact with Viviane and hopefully Christian as well. I will be sharing many more photographs here.  Being able to correspond and share my photographs with them is a special gift for me.

Paris Rouge LXXVIII - L'accordéoniste

Eric

I'm home after a very very long day of travel.  Too tired to load all of my 10GBs so I just pulled out one card, loaded it and chose this adorable boy who brought his own accordion to rue Mouffetard last Sunday for the singing and dancing. The fact that it was ROUGE made my heart sing.

Thank you all for your visits and comments here and on Facebook while I was gone. It was a jam packed week of fun, friends and many photographs. I can't wait to share more in the days to come.

Dimanche Sur Rue Mouffetard II - Le Joueur d'Accordéon

Today the accordion player. Trés sérieux!