When I was a younger man, I played guitar a little. To be clear, I played guitar about as well as I speak French today. Of course, many young men learn guitar in order to woo girls and it’s fair to say a deep appreciation for the mastery of music was not the lead motivator in me picking up the guitar. However, I quickly discovered a key fact in my musical journey, and that was that you really didn’t need to know how to actually play the guitar in order to woo said girls.

In my experience the mere act of holding a guitar already offered one a significant boost in that ancient art of wooing. I learned how to tune a guitar very well, and so I could sit there tuning guitars which would serve me well if I was ever asked to play.

“Yeah, I don’t think I can, it’s quite badly out of tune, you hear?” I’d say as I ‘concentrated’ on the frets of the neck of the guitar. I could even deflect the questions from me to her simply by asking her if she wanted me to teach her some chords. Of course, she did. It was magic!

So as I watched a small brass band blowing hard into their weighty windpipes this afternoon, I found myself wondering what inspired those young men to take up their chosen instrument. Surely their motivation to explore their musical talents was a lot less shallow than mine, but then perhaps the girls of France have a special affection for men with big, err, lungs?

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Stand in the market using Google street view.