The Eiffel Tower (The Nits – Les Nuits / 2005)

The Eiffel Tower (The Nits – Les Nuits / 2005)

The Nits is a Dutch pop band I dote on very much. My favourite album is Les Nuits, a song sung in French which sounds beautifully ungrammatical. My favourite song in that album is the Eiffel Tower. I painted a watercolour based on that song. The rendition below isn’t up to scratch but it’s all I have now to remind me of that painting who belongs to my friend Jerome. He was kind enough to purchase it from me at a watercolour painting exhibition in Rueil.

A true Parisian is a weird animal. I’ve been one for a long time now, but I still feel like a tourist here. There is one sure sign that you are a visitor in Paris and it’s when you are on line 6 of the Metro overlooking the Seine and you can’t refrain from gazing at the Eiffel Tower. It’s true that the view is amazing. But true Parisians don’t do that. Their heads are buried in their papers (or iPhones, nowadays) and they staunchly refuse to look at that touristy piece of architecture.

The Bir-Hakeim bridge from which you have a stunning view of the Eiffel Tower. The Nits didn’t include that in their song, though.

True Parisians are funny people. You can’t really call yourself one, I was once told, if your family hasn’t lived here (meaning dead in the centre of the City) for at least three generations. All this means that true Parisians are few and far between.

The world of Pop’s best kept secret

The Dutch band called The Nits has delivered classic so-called atmospheric Pop for the best of the past 40 years. In fact, they are not just that, they are also the world’s best kept secret. In their album Les Nuits, released in 2005, they issued this beautiful song entitled La Tour Eiffel, and I could not resist the urge to craft a watercolour after that song. If you are one of those who don’t know who the Nits are, then rush to Amazon and buy this record.

The Nits
The Nits and the Eiffel Tower — a blurry rendition of my watercolour
Yann Gourvennec
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