2 October 2015

Paris 2015: François Villon, 5th arrondissement


François Villon (dates uncertain, but early 15th century) was a poète maudit avant la lettre: murderer, thief, vagabond and (probable) homosexual also long before that expression was ever used, Villon was also a great poet whose 'Ballade des dames du temps jadis' was sung by Georges Brassens, and whose final choral line 'Mais où sont des neiges d'antan ?' has even come through to English as 'But where are the snows of yesteryear?' This statue in the square Paul Langevin is by René Collmarini, dating from 1933.

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