For the gala re-opening of La Vie de Bohème at the Théâtre de l'Odéon in 1875, Granier appeared in Act I as Musette, singing "La Jeunesse et l'amour" (with words by Meilhac and music by Massenet); likewise a song for Esmeralda "Mon père est oyseau, ma mère est oyselle" was composed by Massenet in 1879 for her appearance in Notre-Dame de Paris.
It has no particular origin, though it is said they chose it from Giacomo Puccini's opera, La bohème, or more likely from the book on which the latter was based, Henri Murger's La Vie de Bohème.
La bohème | La Bohème | La Boheme | Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne | La Vie Parisienne | La boheme | L'amour de ma vie | Histoire de ma vie | C'est la Vie (B*Witched song) | C'est la Vie | Ma vie en rose | Le Vingtième siècle. La vie électrique | La vie est belle (film, 1997) | La Vie de Bohème | Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne (1937) | Vie | Si la vie est cadeau | Notre vie c'est la musique | La Vie est Belle (1987 film) | La Femme de ma vie | Eau de vie | C'est La Vie (Robbie Nevil song) | C'est la vie (Ann-Louise Hanson, Towa Carson & Siw Malmkvist song) | C'est La Vie | C'est la vie |
The only other literary works that Marriage translated were Henri Murger's Scènes de la vie de bohème (1901) and Marcel Prévost's Frédérique (1900) and Lea (1902).
Of a rather loose construction, its main points of interest lie for today's readers in lively descriptions of "la vie de bohême" and different parts of Paris through the second half of the 19th century, pages on Mechelen in Belgium and Whitby in the 1870s, and its superb illustrations.