Interesting conversation with a young woman in France.
 

Well I'm on vacation in France.............................again. I arrived in Paris monday morning, drove down to the Chateau du Chambord in the Loire valley, then drove down to St-Nazaire where I spent 2 nights. I chose St Nazaire because I'm a WW 1 and 2 history buff and I it was the site of a famous commando raid to blow up the dry dock. It also has several U boat pens.

At the hotel I stayed at, there was a young woman, I'd say about 25 +/- 3 who was minding the desk, running the bar which was empty and helping out with the restaurant which was close to being empty. I asked if I could get a beer or 2 in the bar and she said, mais oui! Actually her English was pretty decent and we talked for quite a while.

One thing we talked about was sports. She said she had played basketball as a young girl and was a big fan of it. She knew America was famous for it but knew none of the teams. Well you just knew eventually I would bring up the subject of Alizee and I did. I asked her about Alizee and she knew Moi Lolita very well, but suprisingly couldn't remember J'en ai marre.
But she described Alizee as a very young, very sexy singer. When I talked last year to a Lufthansa flight attendant who was born in France about Alizee, she too described her songs as being very sexual.

But as was the case with several people I've met in France in the past few years and this is something I've heard several other people mention,and that is that most people in France have no idea that Alizee is still singing.
I told the young woman at the hotel about the autograph session last year and I told her about AAm, but that was pretty much the end of the conversation about Alizee.

The next day, I drove up to Lorient to see the U boat pens there and a French submarine they have on display. As luck would have it, I must have entered the wrong location into my gps and wound up at the waterfront, but with the U boat pens no where in sight. Well I saw a young man, I'd say 27 +/-5 standing next to a sail boat. I asked him if he spoke English and if he knew where the U boat pens were. He did speak English and he said he was going over there in his boat with his freind and asked me to come along. Well that was the chance of a lifetime so I jumped on board.Once again the topic turned to Alizee. Both of them were well aware of her, but once again, had no idea, she was still singing.

Well I found that depressing. I returned to the same hotel in St Nazaire to spend the night. I had 2 busy days behind me and wanted to get to bed early but I wanted to get some internet work done first, but I couldn't get on line. So I brought my laptop down to the bar and once again no one else was there except for the woman working the bar and being another slow night, she seemed happy to have someone to talk to. Well I told her about my net problems and nothing she did seemed to fix it.

So we gave up on that and I showed her the tv episode of the autograph session in Paris. Then my curiousity kind of got to me and I so I showed her some other Alizee videos and asked her if she had ever heard them. I showed her Tempete, Amelie m'a dit and Coeur deja pris ( the video I had put together) and you could literally see her jaw hit the floor. She was amazed. She had no idea Alizee had sung such beautiful songs Could that be the problem in France? So much was done to promote the sexy side of Alizee, they didn't know she had such a beautiful side to her singing.

Well I told her I'd send her a Celtics jersey and a DVD and cd with Alizee's more beautiful songs on them.

Funny thing is when I got back to my hotel room, my internet connection worked just fine.

Scruffy, she shut the Internet off so people would come down to the bar and talk to her as well as spend some money. :D

Smart woman.

Thanks for the report Scruffy. I envy you!

What you said sort of supports what I have said in the past, especially regarding Alizée's last 2 albums. I don't think it is a matter of the French public not liking those albums. It is a matter of the French public having never heard them.

Now maybe they wouldn't like the albums if they did hear them, but at least they should have gotten a fair hearing. I still believe Alizée would have sold more if she had better promotion and better exposure to the general public. I don't know if it is the fault of the record company or the media, but without that kind of exposure, it will continue to be hard for her.

Very nice travelling experience Scruffy..
About Italy all the persons I know, remeber only the "lolita" international acting (2001-2002?) I can understand this, Italy is a very little market in music industry... In general, I presume that "cut off" the sexy exposure, like the last album promo, was probably a problem.I don't mean she don't looks sexy(she's so much) but the kind of escalation of "sexual" contents in music at present day,just delete artists who don't get a massive vulgar sexual showing same way as Rhianna, Gaga, etc. Media corporations just want that. And so young people do.

Nice report Scruff :) its cool to hear of peoples travels and the people they encounter, especially when they speak in Alizée!

Have a safe rest of the trip!

I am learning to speak Alizée!

I don't think Alizée was promoted effectively.... she's got such an amazing voice, in fact that is how I discovered her!.... I didn't know what she looked like when I knew I liked her.

Thanks Scruffy. It's good to hear about your travels in France.

Dave,
So nice to hear that you are getting around France as much as you have been.

I appreciate your posts to keep us up-to-date on everything.

I believe everyone here is correct in stating the promo for Alizée has not been what it could have been.

Sometimes, what is available to you in your "own back yard" is not seen, or being made aware of, and that is the sad part.

May you have a safe and continued enjoyable trip. And thank you for sharing your wonderful French experiences with us.
Stephen :hello:

It wouldnt be strange for me that they dont know songs from Psychedelices and UEDS... but JEAM which was her first single from MCE and then En Concert, when MCE an EC promo was (I think) much bigger as by Psyche...

but nice report Scruffy :)

I just think it is just so sad that Alizée's music has been ignored by the French radio stations. Alizée in that interview in Mexico said there are so very few French singers known outside France. Yet here the French media who should be promoting are ignoring one of the hottest French internationally known singers. (BTW Hottest as in well known.)

There's an English correspondent Charles Bremner who writes for the Times of London who reports from Paris, I forwarded him a poll of the 100 hottest women about two years ago. The poll had Alizée listed at 25 and Carla Bruni Sarkozy at 86. He wrote me back and was embarrassed to say that Alizée was walking around right under his nose in Paris and he had no idea who she was.

Knowing what we know about Alizée I can not believe that the French don't use her more Internationally to promote tourism in France. Ajaccio should be using her many quotes in their ads over seas that it is her favorite place to be. How many of her fans around the world who never would have thought about vacationing on Corsica, would take a serious look at visiting it in the future.

If not for Alizée being born there and mainly her fathers beautiful photographs, Corsica, has become one of those must visit places, in the near future.