It's always a good idea to go to France

Writing and singing in four languages. I knew it would be challenging, but right now, in the midst of writing and recording, I can say it’s all- consuming and rewarding at the same time. Oh, and a wonderful motive to go back to Paris! Which I did recently. So here’s what’s going on:

When I first began translating my brand new songs to Portuguese, Italian and French I thought that writing the French lyrics would be relatively easy for me. How naive! When my French friend had a listen to the first lyrics I (thought I had) finished it turned out I had hugely overestimated my language skills. Oops!

I realized three things:

• I felt a little bit ashamed of myself
• I had to find a French French teacher ASAP (yes, a French person with language teaching skills)
• I had to go back to France as quickly as I could to practice more ;-)

me in Paris dreaming of one day being able to deliver perfectly poetic French sentences

I did both. First I found a teacher. Gaëlle’s been teaching me since September last year. We converse in French for about 75 minutes every week, which is such an intense and effective way to learn. And she’s wonderfully critical and helpful when I show her my French songlyrics.

But even with support like this…it’s always a good idea to go to France!

This year I took two short trips, one to Paris and one to Normandy. I went to Paris, not only because it’s a gorgeous city and because I wanted to bother Parisians with random conversations, but also to find the perfect place to try out my French songs in front of an audience of native speakers. This performance should take place later this year.

Some photos of the Paris-trip:

Gare du Nord upon arrival - it was snowing!

And to continue on a more colorful note:

A beautiful place to have lunch (near Place de la Concorde): Toraya.

Marco and I on the train back to Rotterdam

I'll be posting more on the making of the album(s) and the related trips throughout Europe.

If you're interested in hearing the music I've released so far, you can find it, for instance, on Spotify

Thanks for reading this. Talk to you soon!

I've just published this article on my blog.