PARIS -- It had been raining since morning, but Charles Aznavour's welcoming smile banished thoughts of the cold outside.
We were in French music publisher Raoul Breton's company, on the rue Ampere in the 17th Arrondissement, which manages major songs by great French chanson singers such as Edith Piaf and Charles Trenet.
Aznavour, the Frank Sinatra of France, purchased the company with his friend Gerald Davoust in 1992, when Breton's wife, Rachel, died, to make sure that this great music collection, which includes his own songs, would not be scattered.