Fanspot
Secrétan Street
“On la trouvait plutôt jolie, Lily
Paroles de Lily by Pierre Perret
Elle arrivait des Somalies, Lily
Dans un bateau plein d’émigrés
Qui venaient tous de leur plein gré
Vider les poubelles à Paris”
She came from Somalia
Lily , a song by Pierre Perret, tells the story of a young exile from Somalia who lives in very harsh conditions. She leaves this African region called today Djibouti for Paris. Her life is not the most rosy in the capital, especially because she empties garbage and is a victim of racism.
From a boat to Secrétan street
This song is avant-garde since it was composed by Pierre Perret in 1977. Few pieces at the time dealt with the issues of migration, smugglers and exiles. In order to concern the listeners, the author gives it flesh, embodies it by a young woman and gives it a name: Lily.
After a boat trip, she disembarked in Paris, rue Secrétan. This artery of the capital exists not under the noun street but under the common name avenue.
3 minutes to talk about racism
If on Secrétan Street, a hotelier “specified to him, upon arriving, That we only received whites.” Racism is there, raw. Yet Lily was convinced that in the land of human rights, she would have found more equality.
They call her “Snow White” and she even falls in love with a “handsome blond curly-haired man” but her in-laws refuse her categorically: “We’re not racist for two cents
But we don’t want that in our house”.
From Paris to Memphis, the same ills
So she tried America, “that great democratic country”. But there, she is also confronted with racism. Even an Angela Davis rally in Memphis reminds him of the same ills. But there is hope when people fight together.
Pierre Perret got the idea for this song after attending a conference of the American black rights activist in 1972 at Madison Square Garden. He is upset. However, it took him more than three years to write the words on his white sheet of paper, so delicate was the theme.
Defend and impose this title
However, it is not easy to defend Lily to the public – insults are pouring in – and to the media. The composer confided to RFI: ” The radios did not want to broadcast the song. At the time, I was giving a lot of concerts. And every time I was asked to make a TV, I said : “Yes, but I sing Lily. It’s this or nothing.”
Lily has received numerous awards around the world, including the Peace Prize in 1978, awarded by the International League Against Racism and Anti-Semitism.
Secrétan Avenue is 695 m long and 20 m wide.
Avenue Secrétan
Avenue Secrétan is an artery in Paris.
Avenue Secrétan is located in the 19th arrondissement of the French capital.
Named after Joseph Secrétan, Napoleon’s Baron d’Empire, it is 695 m long and 20 m wide.
The resistance fighter Domingo Tejero Pérez was seriously wounded by a Nazi officer on 26 July 1942.
It is also mentioned in the lyrics of Pierre Perret’s song Lily as Rue Secrétan.
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Fanspots Stories Paris [French Edition]
Fanspots Stories ParisFanspots are legendary images from films, series, music, comics or novels.
These are often anonymous places these are that have become world-famous thanks to pop culture, to the point where they are now inseparable from the works they were used to set.
Amélie, James Bond, Mission Impossible, La Grande Vadrouille, Les Tontons flingueurs, Bref, Call my Agent, Sex & The City, Blake & Mortimer, Spider-Man, Notre-Dame de Paris… Discover the history of the cult locations of the greatest pop culture masterpieces in the City of Light!
Paris filmed, Paris sung, Paris drawn, Paris told… For artists, the City of Light is an extraordinary field of expression and an inexhaustible source of inspiration. Each new work is an outstretched hand to seduce new people, thanks to the dreamers of yesterday and today. Famous or anonymous places then become cult. These are the secrets of a hundred of them revealed in this third volume of the Fanspots Stories collection.
SOME EXAMPLES
The coffee ofAmélie, the location of the Corniaud, the bridge of Inception, the seat of the Spectre in James Bond, the restaurant of Ratatouille, the church of Les Tontons Flingueurs, the bar of Bref., the agency in Call my Agent, the restaurant in Emily in Paris, the refuge of Lupin, the Parisian residence of the heroines of Gossip Girl, the firm of In therapy, the works of the Louvre featured in the clip Apeshit by Jay Z & Beyoncé, the Parc Montsouris of Jacques Higelin, the metro station of Poinçonneur des Lilas by Serge Gainsbourg, the café in Paris Le Flore by Etienne Daho, the apartment ofAdèle Blanc-Sec, the lair of Olrik in Blake & Mortimer, the apartment of Arsene Lupin, the home of the Count of Monte Cristo, the address of The Malaussian Family, the police station of Maigret, the Fiat Lux agency of Nestor Burma, the bar of A Moveable Feast, the tavern of Three musketeers…
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Discover all the places Lily on our map
By Damien Canteau
Passionné par l'Histoire, les animés, les Arts et la bande dessinée en particulier, Damien est le rédacteur en chef du site spécialisé dans le 9e art, Comixtrip.