Jarvis has said a few times he can't speak French - and this was after living there. They made this song before he lived there. How did the lyrics come about?
I've never entirely believed the 'Jarvis can't speak French' thing much anyway. He certainly seems to speak more French during song intros at French gigs than any other English singers I can think of.
He always had a rudimentary grasp of it, presumably from school and his interest in French music/cinema but I'm not sure he bothered his arse much about improving it after marrying Camille and moving to France.
There's a bootleg from a live radio broadcast in Paris when his first solo album came out and his level of French sounded more or less the same as on the forthcoming Portfolio gig around the time of Separations in '91 (i.e. 15 years before). Lower-intermediate I reckon, speaking anyway. I imagine his comprehension is probably decent and in theory he should pick-up quite a bit from his son.
Michel Polnareff wrote them lyrics, he's a crazy dude who ended spending years never going out of his hotel room. Wrote some good songs though, when French music was kinda interesting.
I'm pretty sure Jarvis speaks french well in private but he's probably ashamed of his accent in public. I'm the same in english.
