La Mer
Douce france
Et maintenant
Sous Le ciel De Paris
La Vie En Rose
Les Gitanes
et the list goes on..

Here's my list, though I must admit my wife (of French birth) hates when I listen to these...
1. Les Accordeons de France - compilation of musette-style waltzes
2. Accordeon: Nostalgic Poet of Paris - another compilation of musette-style music
3. Ca c'est Paris (3 vols) - songs about Paris from 1920s-1950s
4. Les airs du temps (2 vols) - popular songs from 1920s-1950s

Numbers 1 and 4 are my favorites. Numbers 3 and 4 I bought in Paris, so I don't know if they are available elsewhere.

Another song I must mention is "Que reste-t-il de nos amours" sung by Salome de Bahia in a salsa style. It's on her CD "Cabaret" which is a bossa nova record produced by Bob Sinclair (who is a well-known producer of French electronic music).

Degas,
Just thought of another entertainer, Karen Akers. My wife and I saw her recently at Le Jazz Au Bar Club in Manhattan. She sings wonderful Piaf and other French classics. There is a CD of hers with Paris in its title that should be right up your alley.

Other than the incomparable Barbara Cook, Karen is our favorite cabaret singer. My wife and I have gone to their shows many times and 'Nous n'avons jamais des regrets..:'

Ultra Lounge - A Bachelor in Paris
((H))

Definitely the "Amelie" soundtrack!! Nothing like a French accordion (swoon)...

Anything by Serge Gainsbourg.

I have a GREAT CD by the French pop group NIAGARA called "Quel enfer!" 80s French pop...what could be better?? (I tracked it down on the French amazon.com website for a good deal.)

SALUT!

soundtrack from Umbrellas of Cherborg (sp)... it's very old but I did find a CD on-line.

Degas, I did NOT know that one could cook dinner without sipping wine! :s-

jjill I was playing that CD while doing my laundry today. I also have the vid.

Man, this is tougher than I first thought. So many good choices.

'60's pop by Pink Martini, I heard this song all over Paris radio this Spring. I forgot about it...until it turned up in the background of an awful movie, Josey & the Pussycats (neither Parker Posey nor Alan Cummings could save it). Je ne Veux Pas Travailler. You can get the lyrics from Ask Jeeves.

Charles Trenet can do it like nobody else! I have lots of French CD's, but he's THE ONE. There is always a Trenet CD in my car player - I've forgotten what American music sounds like.

Francis Cabrel. I've been so absorbed with so much other stuff the past year it had slipped by me that he has a new album "Les Beaux Degats". Cross our fingers it's as good as "Hors saison" and "Samedi Soir sur la Terre".

Best wishes,

Rex

I like Charles Trenet also Sue4.I can listen to him singing <La Mer> all day long..
His voice is so suave and pleasant!

Ahhh, kismet, La Mer~ sigh :)

a great 3 CD pack is Les Enfoires. All the artists on this travel France too perform to raise money for the homeless. Started by the actor Coluche.
There's performances by Patricia Kaas, Patrick Bruel, Francis Cabrel, Johnny Hallyday, Vanessa Paradis, Mimie Mathy, Jane Birkin,Julian Clerc, Patrick Fiori, Pascal Obispo, and too many others to name that also include film stars.

Try Rough Guide's Paris Cafe Music CD. It's a good mix of French classics with plenty of suave French accordion tunes.

I forgot to say, that they come in a yearly pack for the concerts that tour every January. I have the 2000 and the 2002.

I've been listening in the car to Putumayo's compilation "French Cafe". That has sent me through cyberspace hunting down more CD's by Paris Combo and Stephane Sanseverino.

I've been listening a lot lately to a lovely CD called La Belle Epoque, on which Susan Graham sings songs of Reynaldo Hahn. It may be stretching a point to count Hahn as a French composer, since he was born in Venezuela to German and Venezuelan parents, but he spent much of his career in France, the songs are all in French, and they feel very French (whatever that means).

111op, why not the whole Suite Bergamasque, not just the Clair de Lune? Some of the other movements are beautiful too. (Only kidding -- I'm currently learning to play the Passepied, and I'm feeling defensive on its behalf.)

Thank you all for the great inputs.

My budget will not allow for too many purchases as cotton and peanut prices have been distressingly low this year.

However, I will cut back on non-important stuff like soap, and shampoo and buy a couple of CDs.