Miles Davis & Juliette Gréco: An Impossible Love in Paris | Slow French

They fall in love in Paris without speaking each other’s language. So why don’t Miles Davis and Juliette Gréco build a life together?

In 1949, a concert at Salle Pleyel brings Miles and Juliette together. Follow their walks along the Seine, the contrast with a difficult dinner in New York, and his return to France to create the music for Ascenseur pour l’échafaud, starring Jeanne Moreau.

A story about love, recognition and the barriers between two worlds, told in slow French with French and English subtitles by Déborah at Feel Good French.

French conversation group
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Expressions explained

• de fil en aiguille — one thing leads to another
• se heurter à — to come up against an obstacle
• porter tort à quelqu’un — to cause someone harm

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Chapters
00:00 Miles & Juliette: love without a shared language
01:00 Miles Davis arrives in Paris, 1949
01:40 A backstage encounter at Salle Pleyel
02:26 Juliette’s circle: Sartre and a different welcome
03:49 A difficult dinner at the Waldorf-Astoria
05:04 Back in France: Ascenseur pour l’échafaud
07:11 Sartre asks: why not marry?
08:22 Nina Simone and a question for you
09:22 Join the French conversation group

Music: “Cafe Regrette” by Asher Fulero; “The Jazz Messenger” by Vendla / Epidemic Sound.

Image attribution: “Parijs 1949” by René Defonseca / Family Defonseca; family archive Smiley Toerist. Cropped and animated; adapted image under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Source photograph | License