Julien Doré: Le Lac

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Le Lac d’Allos, Parc National de Mercantour

Le Lac (The Lake) (Album: “&” or "Et"), 2016
​The line “La Madone au nord” is a curious way to start a song. It is the first line of Julien Doré’s song “Le lac” and is emblematic of the poetic and ambiguous nature of Julien Doré’s oeuvre.
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​Doré’s song “Le Lac” was a single release in July 2016 from his upcoming 4th studio album named “&” (or “Et”) that appeared later in October. Both the album and the song reached the #1 position on French charts. Doré’s song “Sublime & Silence,” released in September, also came from that same album. The two songs are like musical bookends that share similar structure and chords but different stories. This staggered preliminary release was effective staging from both a commercial and artistic standpoint since the narrative in “Le lac” concerns a love relationship that, by the time of “Sublime et silence,” had become history.

The first line of “Le lac” ("La Madone au nord...") invokes the Chalet de la Madone de Fenestre, a refuge for hikers located at the heart of a geographic amphitheater in the Parc Nationale du Mercantour that straddles the Alpes-Maritimes and Alpes-de-Haute-Provence departments. It lies just north of Monaco/Nice and west of Italy. The park includes several lakes, including the Lac d’Allos, pictured above, the largest natural mountain lake in Europe. The refuge includes several chalets that offer beds and meals, and provides a marvelous panorama of the Cime du Gélas, the highest peak in the region. As a youth, Julien Doré spent time nearby with his grandmother at her chalet in the town of Saint-Martin-Vésubie (the “Switzerland of Nice”), the principal point-of-entry to the national park. The region served as inspiration for song-writing and was also the venue for shooting the official “Le lac” video clip. That is a rather silly clip in which Julien climbs boulders and wears a "mad Max" helmet while riding through the park on a Honda Monkey Baja lookalike miniature motorcycle. The video provides a visual display that has little to do with the song's lyrics, but lots to do with panoramic vistas. In an unlikely encounter, Julien eventually joins Pamela Anderson lakeside. Self-deprecation is an endearing Doré quality.

“Le lac” is a love song that commemorates time spent together and alone in a glorious environment of lakes, peaks, forests, and rivers. The song includes 3 verses. Each verse has 2 stanzas with 4 lines each and is followed by the same refrain. Verse stanzas rhyme in an ABAB pattern while the chorus lines rhyme ABCB.
As usual, bold italicized words in the lyrics receive commentary below.

​French Lyrics
​Verse 1
La Madone au Nord
Et le lac se dessine
Courageux et fort
Où rien ne respire

Corps contre corps
Ciel contre cimes
La forêt se tord
L’horizon soupire

Chorus
T’aimer sur les bords du lac
Ton cœur sur mon corps qui respire
Pourvu que les hommes nous regardent
Amoureux de l’ombre et du pire

Verse 2
Je reviendrai fort
Surprendre la cime
La rivière et l’or
Font prendre racine

J’ai trompé la mort
La pente est facile
Serre-moi encore
Que mes anges vacillent

Chorus
T’aimer sur les bords du lac
Ton cœur sur mon corps qui respire
Pourvu que les hommes nous regardent
Amoureux de l’ombre et du pire

T’aimer sur les bords du lac
Ton cœur sur mon corps qui respire
Pourvu que les hommes nous regardent
Amoureux de l’ombre et du pire
 
Verse 3
Si demain tu regrettes
Le miroir écorché
Que le lac te reflète
Promets moi d’oublier

Si demain tu regrettes
Le miroir écorché
Que le lac te reflète
Promets-moi d'oublier
 
Chorus
T'aimer sur les bords du lac
Ton cœur sur mon corps qui respire
Pourvu que les hommes nous regardent
Amoureux de l'ombre et du pire
 
Pourvu que les hommes nous regardent
Amoureux de l'ombre et du pire

​English Translation (Pendergast)
​Verse 1
The Madonna in the North
And the lake appears
Courageous and strong
Where nothing breathes
 
Body against body
Sky against peaks
The forest twists
The horizon sighs
 
Chorus
Loving you on the lakeshores
Your heart on my breathing body
Let's hope that people watch us
In love with darkness and bad things
 
Verse 2
I will return strong
To surprise the peak
The river and the gold
Help put down roots
 
I cheated death
The slope is easy
Hold me again
So that my angels waver
 
Chorus
Loving you on the lakeshores
Your heart upon my breathing body
Let's hope that people watch us
In love with darkness and bad things
 
Loving you on the lakeshores
Your heart upon my breathing body
Let's hope that people watch us
In love with darkness and bad things
 
Verse 3
If tomorrow you regret
The scarred mirror
That the lake reflects you
Promise me to forget
 
If tomorrow you regret
The scarred mirror
That the lake reflects you
Promise me to forget
 
Chorus
Loving you on the lakeshores
Your heart upon my breathing body
Let's hope that people watch us
In love with darkness and bad things
 
Let's hope that people watch us
In love with darkness and bad things

1)Pourvu que: means “provided that” or “as long as” when it expresses a condition for something else to occur (the verb in the following dependent clause requires the subjunctive mood). In a non-conditional exclamation like the one above, however, it can also mean “let’s hope that…” 
2)Font prendre racine: “font” is the third person plural of the verb “faire.” Its use in this phrase, followed by a verbal expression, indicates an ancillary role of assisting in the activity of the following expression (“prendre racine”).
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