"Le Pond De Nante" - John Bertrand & Roy Gonzales

Before the arrival of the Acadians in 1764, Louisiana had a fair share of Frenchmen that arrived and resided along the Mississippi River as explorers, either from New France provinces near the Great Lakes or as French soldiers stationed along the river in places such as Natchez, Pointe Coupee, and New Orleans.  Many of these Frenchmen would travel westward, away from the flooded watershed and find farming opportunities in the prairies of present-day St. Landry and Evangeline Parishes. They carried with them the songs of French European life.   By the end of the Napoleonic Era, more Frenchman would settle in south Louisiana, bringing with them other European melodies alongside Appalachian tunes pouring into the region.  Accordionist John H. Bertrand, of St. Landry parish, grew up exposed to these songs by his daughter who learned them from his mother, Nora Boone.  In 1929, he had the rare opportunity to record these seminal songs on wax alongside guitar player Roy Gonzales and his fiddling son, Anthony.  

Un jour en me promenant dessus le pont de Nantes,

J'ai rencontré la belle et j'ai voulu l'embrasser,

Hélas, le tribunal m'a rendu prisonnier.

Et quand ma belle a eu de mes nouvelles, 

Elle s'était habillée dedans une grande robe noire,

Et droit dans la prison, la belle est bien allée. 

...

Crowley Daily Signal
Jul 5, 1929

Bertrand's songs like "Le Pond de Nante" (#12776) is a loose interpretation of a classic classic old world French song from Brittany called "Dans les prisons de Nantes".   According to Wikipedia, it's a song featuring the story of the jailer 's daughter who helps a prisoner escape from a prison in Nantes.  It can be found almost everywhere in the French-speaking world thanks to the sailors going up the Loire or to the exiles who arrived in New France.   This particular story is of a lost love that dressed as a page, in a dark robe, pretending to be a man.  She begs the prison guards to let her in to see her lover.  Once in, she hands her lover the clothes, directs him to her horse, and instructs him to escape to freedom.1 

One day, while walking along the Nantes bridge,

I met the beauty and wanted to kiss her.

Alas, the court held me prisoner.

And when my beauty heard from me,

She had dressed in a long black dress.

And straight to prison, the beauty went.

...

1. https://books.openedition.org/editionsbnf/490?lang=fr
2. Lyrics by Tristan H

Release Info:

Le Pond De Nante | Paramount 12776

La Delaisser | Paramount 12776