Entre Saint-Ouen et Clignancourt

I sold flowers on the sidewalks
When I was seventeen
But the wheel keeps turning, time flies
Now I've got some green
Well! Despite my bank account
My ride, my jewels
Some days I feel something's missing
I get the blues all of a sudden.

Between Saint-Ouen and Clignancourt
Every now and then I gotta take a stroll
Through the hood
I find all my past again
The sky so sweet, the rough cobblestones
The yellow grass
And splashing in the streams
Groups of kids half punks
Half fauns
The smell of fries and lilacs
Shivering, I find it all again
In the hood.

In my opinion, the people out there
Don’t know how to make love
At the critical moment they just ramble
With bullshit, with speeches
So those who, like me, know
What a real man is,
They just think: a guy, quick
And I’ll catch up

Between Saint-Ouen and Clignancourt
Every now and then I gotta take a stroll
Through the hood
We head over to big Léon’s,
While the accordion plays,
An old Beaune
It’s spring and it’s evening
Calm and strong, in front of the bar
The guys are lounging
And in the crowd, we just pick
To satisfy all our desires
In the hood.

Sometimes even the heart gets involved
And to hear better
The voice that says: "Kid, you’re so beautiful"
We close our eyes
But we only live on love and fresh water
In certain novels
So quickly we pair up
Without dreaming any longer

Between Saint-Ouen and Clignancourt
I came back yesterday to take a stroll
Through the hood
What a change I found
They’re tearing down everything
What a cyclone...
No more bushes, no more wooden shacks
No more those songs that were for me
A charity
And in front of my destroyed memories
All alone I cried in the night
In the hood.