The French They Are a Funny Race -- They Fight With Their Feet and...Well, You Know

So anyway, as attentive readers are aware, a certain Shady Dame and I just returned from the charming city of Montreal, in darkest Canadia. While there, in a sort of equivalent of New York's old East Village neighborhood, i.e. the bohemian part of town, we chanced across this hilarious and funky vintage clothing store...

...which we were immediately hooked by when we spied that hand-painted sign below the top center windows. (Which, if you can't make it out, reads "Fuck X-Mas I Want to Come Now.")

But that's a story for another time.

What really grabbed us, however, was inside the store -- this poster on the wall. Hanging above some over-priced shirts.

A thoroughly striking graphic/image, doncha think?

And clearly, although I had never heard of her, that Annabel person was some kind of French pop star from back in the day. I'm a big fan of some of the others of that ilk, i.e. existential cuties like Juliette Greco, Françoise Hardy and Sylvie Vartan, and that poster -- simply as a piece of period art -- blew me away. (Kind of a Patti Smith vibe, n'est-ce pas?)

So back in our hotel I did a little research.

Turns out her full name was Annabel Schwob, and apart from being a pop star -- and a writer of some repute -- she was the wife of the poster's artiste. A guy named Bernard Buffet, who was extremely well known in his home country and actually considered in the same league as Pablo Picasso, until he fell victim to changing fashions and went out of style long before his death in 1999.

So, naturally, I went to YouTube. And, flush with excitement, found this clip of her on French TV, sometime in the early '70s, doing her chanteuse thing.

Okay, then. Alas, that sorta, er, sucks.

I should have guessed, of course. Hey -- there's a reason why Annabel (or most of those other French warbler babes besides Jane Birkin) never sold any records in the US of A. And it isn't because she could have had me if she'd played her Gallic cartes right, if you know what I mean.

Sad, vraiment? Oh well, la vie isn't always belle.

BTW -- if you want a beautiful suitable for framing original print of that Annabel poster, you can get it at eBay over HERE.

Coming tomorrow: Speaking of existential cuties, I finally have something definitive to say about Taylor Swift.