♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ My father always promised us We would live in France We'd go sailing on the sand And I would learn to dance We lived in Ohio then And he worked in the mines On his streams like boats we knew We would sail in time ♪ All my sisters soon were gone To Denver and Cheyenne Marrying their grown-up dreams The lilacs and the man I stayed behind the youngest And only danced along The colors of my father's dreams Faded without a sound ♪ And now I live in Paris And my children dance and dream Hearing the story of a miner's life In words they've never seen I sell my memories of old Like boats across the sand And I watch the Paris sun Set in my father's eyes Again ♪ My father always promised us We would live in France We'd go sailing on the sand And I would learn to dance ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪