Hey guys...does anyone know where I can find some little music boxes with French tunes to take home for my little girls? I'm especially fond of the songs La Mer and La Vie en Rose...perhaps a crank box or even a musical figurine? Nothing tres cher, please...I'll be searching for something in the $30 or less range...

Any other sweet momento suggestions welcome!

Thanks!

Christina

I suppose some toy stores or even dept. or discount stores (like Monoprix) might have something like that, but there is a store that specializes in music boxes in the galeries of the Palais Royal.

That is Anna Joliet at 8, rue de Beaujolais, 1st arr. That store has both antique and new music boxes.

Music boxes usually don't have those kind of pop or cabaret songs on them, so don't search too long for that. They usually have simple folk tunes or lullabies on them.

Thanks for the tip, Christina! I found this excerpt on someone's blog...

' "Anna Joliet is a tiny shop filled with music boxes that play everything from “La Vie en Rose” to “Hey Jude.” '

I'll definitely check it out (also, the blog mentions a cool little toy store right next door!)~

Any other suggestions are surely welcome!

Christina

Also, I wrote down the title of a thread: "Paris Passage Music Box Shop" in my Paris notes. Put it in the search box and it should pop up.

Anna Joliet has a fabulous selection of music boxes, many costing hundreds of euro or more. It also has a good selection of extremely inexpensive music boxes (a few euro) that play all sorts of different tunes. These latter music boxes can also be found in many other stores, such as souvenir shops and music stores. Anna Joliet is where you go if you want to spend big money on a box that will play a symphony.

well, how about that, you proved me wrong -- a music box that plays Hey Jude? How nostalgic. Actually, I think I have seen cheap music boxes in some souvenir shops, now that I think of it.

I remember once a boyfriend of a friend of mine sent a music box from Germany where he was in the military and she asked me what the song meant as it was in German (which I knew a little) . Unfortunately, I had to tell her the song meant "goodbye" (auf wiedersehen). Not a good song to send your girlfriend.

Hey Jude, Let It Be, and Hotel California are still current songs in France, if one goes by what people sing on the steps of Sacré-Coeur. My theory is that it takes thirty or forty years for French singers to get the pronunciation right. I'm pretty sure they still don't understand the words, though, since I've heard Hotel California played as the bride and groom's song at wedding receptions ("you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave" sounds like strange advice to newlyweds).

And to think I wouldn't get any responses on this one...

Thanks for the help, everyone. I'll keep an eye out in the souvenir shops for music boxes but will also check out Anna Joliet~

Christina

PS...AnthonyGA, I agree about the strange song choice...how 'bout the part that goes, "We are all just prisoners here, of our own device"...definitely not my idea of wedding material but different strokes for different folks, right?