Pour La Vie is Patrick Bruel’s warm, nostalgic postcard to the friends who shared his teenage summers. The lyrics open on a movie-like scene at the end of June: hugs, handshakes, and the promise of “one for all and all for one.” Everyone boards a different train, then real life rolls in. Careers, children, romances, arguments, and reconciliations pile up, and the once-tight crew drifts apart almost without noticing. Far from bitter, Bruel smiles at the wrinkles and the blurred memories, repeating “C’est la vie”—that is life.
The chorus flips the usual lament on its head. Instead of fighting time, the singer salutes it. Life may “give us wrinkles at the corner of the eyes and the heart,” yet it also teaches that love and friendship can survive clumsy choices, missed phone calls, and years of silence. The message is simple and uplifting: accept the unpredictable ride, keep your sense of humor, and remember that the bonds you forge—however battered—are “pour la vie,” for life.