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.