Silent Night in French by Vivi . . . a true Christmas Story from 35 years ago

Vivi first recorded this beautiful “folk songish” version of Silent Night for a Christmas present in 1992. That cassette tape has long ago turned to brittle plastic, but in 2022, she made a digital copy from the master tape for all to enjoy in perpetuity.

There is a story behind this song. I first met Vivi at the Dec. 15,1990 Smithsonian Institute Administrators Christmas Party. I was there to sample my goat cheese. It was one of those “Some Enchanted Evenings.” I thought that I would never see her again as we parted the following afternoon. She was flying to Los Angeles to audition for singing the soundtrack for a movie . . . clearly a case of the French Princess and the American toad.

She had a horrible experience in the film director’s office. He drugged her coffee then violently tried to ravage her. At the last second, a secretary ran into his office after she threw a vase against the door. Back at the hotel, she happened to run into some Mennonites from Virginia, who instantly recognized what had happened to her . . . tried to comfort her . . . then told her about being born again.

Low and behold on Wednesday, there Vivi was standing in the snow on my farm driveway in the Shenandoah Valley. She first said that she wanted to see if I was really who I said I was . . . an architect-goat cheese maker . . . then she said, “Please wash every square centimeter of my body then baptize me. I want to be 18 again.” I told her that I was NOT a minister, but she said, ” It didn’t matter. You are the first man, who has ever treated me like a human.” I had to microwave water from Toms Brook and use an old Methodist hymnal for the words.

We went out to eat afterward at the Old Springhouse Inn in Woodstock, VA. Of all things, John Lennon’s widow, Yoko Ono, was sitting alone at the next table. She was overjoyed to have someone to talk to. She had driven down to the Valley, because she didn’t want to be alone again in New York City during Christmas.

Vivi walked away from the movie and recording industry and bought an old farm in northeastern France. She had nothing more to do with the European Jet Set. She turned her life over 180 degrees and concentrated first on being a good mother for her previously neglected daughter.

There is much more to the story . . . another time.

Click the arrow on left to start the stong.