Piaf, almost as famous for her many love affairs and addictions as for her songs, wrote the previously unseen letters to championship cyclist Louis Gerardin in 1951 and 1952, dedicating her song "Plus bleu que tes yeux" to him. In her letters to Gerardin, she mixes that passionate love with sexual desire, praising the cyclist's thighs and buttocks.
Gerardin himself reportedly said of his mistress: "Forty eight hours with Piaf are more tiring than a lap in the Tour de France".
Above: Cyclist thighs and buttocks on Addington Street, SE1
It's good to see that health and safety has not been overlooked and everyone in this picture has remembered to wear protective headgear.
