French folk songs

Post earthquake budgets at Canterbury remind me of some of the tunes I learned in music class.

You see, I went to a French-immersion elementary school in Manitoba.

We sang from a book called "Les 100 plus belles chansons". Almost invariably, the lyrics were of murder and death and cannibalism, usually to pleasant and upbeat tunes. Or at least those were the ones Mlle. Parent chose for us to sing to her in chorus. If there were non-cannibal non-death songs in there, I don't know about them.

I'm particularly remembering the one where a sailing crew had to draw straws to see who would be eaten when the food ran out: Il était un petit navire. 

Another greatest hit: The lament sung by a mother bird whose babies flew from the nest too early, fell, and were eaten by a fox: A la volette.

Good times....