This song, set to a Baudelaire text, is a showpiece for Duparc's

greatest strengths—an ability to combine voice and accompaniment into

a true partnership, vivid mood setting, the expression of sensuality,

and a never-overused gift for lyricism.

In the song, a lover invites his beloved to come with him to a place

that resembles her, a beautiful place where there is nothing but

"order and beauty, luxury, calm, and voluptuousness." These lines,

which are repeated as a type of refrain, are almost breathlessly

sensual in the voice, but in the accompaniment there is an uneasy

stirring underneath. The lover describes the mysterious place in

a sometimes restrained lyricism that occasionally rises to passionate

declaration, while the accompaniment again counter-balances it, whether

with a repeated rippling effect or the heavy chords that somewhat

darken the tone. The transitions from one mood to another are very

smooth and natural, so much so that the final mood is a combination of

light and dark, rather than just a contrast.

© All Music Guide