le rap français and Marly-Gomont

One of the most popular songs in France right now (or at least as far as I can determine) is Marly-Gomont by the rapper Kamini. It originally caught our attention because the video is quite amusing even if you don't know any French (check out the video here!). The song itself is about life in the country village of Marly-Gomont (Kamini's family was the only black family in town). In the video, Kamini is seen rapping on tractors, hanging out in cow pastures, and dancing with the local yokels. Honestly, I have a really hard time understanding what he's saying but it's totally hilarious nonetheless.

Sort of on a whim, we decided to look up the lyrics (the song is even funnier now that we know them) and discovered that the story behind Kamini is actually quite compelling--enough so that he was even featured in Time Magazine (if you liked what you saw in the video, I recommend checking out the article if you have a chance (it's in English!)). So as I mentioned, Kamini grew up in Marly-Gomont and had dreamt of becoming a hip-hop artist. Rather than contrive some sort of street cred (obviously not possible in a town of several hundred), he decided to rap about what he knew best: his rural village. Last summer he shot a video for around 100 Euros and sent it to the record companies. None of them showed any interest, but someone posted it on some obscure website and, as they say in France... voilà! The video was discovered and overnight Kamini became a big hit. He's already had several million downloads of his video and he now has a record contract!

And if you're really interested in French rap, this video too, by Fatal Bazooka (no translation necessary) is totally over the top (intentionally so). It's a rap by a French comedian and sort of pokes fun at the stereotypical rap videos. Again, no knowledge of French is needed but obviously is funnier if you can understand the lyrics. This song, Fous Ta Cagoule has been popular ever since we arrived and shows no signs of tapering off!

At Last, the McDonald's of Coffee

Paris is the only area in France where Starbucks exists--yes, I actually looked it up before we came to France... more out of curiousity than anything else. And no, they don't have Costco in France. I guess when you're from Seattle you wonder about these things. Anyhow, while the little cups of espresso that they serve here are quite good, I do occasionally miss a "normal" size cup of coffee that lasts you more than a minute or two. Katie especially misses being able to nurse a coffee in the morning.

So we really wanted to go to a Starbucks in Paris, have a big cup of coffee, and check out the scene. I was actually thinking I'd see more of them, but I think in our week there we only saw two (and went to one). The store is pretty much as you would find in any Starbucks in the US: baristas in green aprons, soft lightning, cozy chairs, Paris mugs. The only exception I witnessed is that they serve "for here" customers in real cups and saucers (they have the traditional white paper cups with the Starbucks logo for takeout). As far as I can tell, takeout coffee is very rare in France--Starbucks is about the only place I've seen coffee served in paper cups. They even have bagels, scones, and muffins as you would in the States. While I did see a few bagel places in Paris, I have yet to see anywhere selling bagels, scones, or muffins in Toulouse. The other thing about Starbucks that's just like the US (and very nice for Paris) is that the bathrooms are clean!

Oh, almost forgot. They were also playing that jazzy, adult-contemporary, Pottery Barn-ish Christmas music that I know you all know (and love). This was the first time in France that we really heard Christmas songs--doesn't seem to be part of the Christmas tradition here. I can't say this is something I especially miss. It's quite nice to go Christmas shopping and NOT hear Christmas songs. I'll have to write some evangelists in the US and perhaps they can start waging a war on Christmas here too (I'm sure they already want to wage war on France so I'm sure this isn't a problem).

So how was the coffee? I was a bit surprised by my reaction. Normally I like Starbucks coffee because it's always served quite hot. But apparently I've gotten pretty used to drinking espresso because the Starbucks drip tasted pretty gross--like watered down coffee. I'm not saying I'm one of those European coffee snobs or anything, I just think that I'm not used to the taste of American coffee for the moment. In summary, I was a bit disappointed. In most French cafes, you sit down and they serve coffee to you at your seat. In Starbucks, you have to wait in line and serve yourself. So I'm not anxious for Starbucks to open in Toulouse if they decide to expand beyond Paris. Speaking of which, most people we've met here have no idea what Starbucks is which I find rather amusing given how ubiquitous it is in the States. The only way I can really explain it to them is that it's the McDonald's of coffee... just what Howard Schultz had in mind, I'm sure.

Paris!

Katie and I spent the week after Christmas in Paris. Or as my friend Steve Fong (see 12/25 blog entry) put it, "you took a vacation on vacation?" Yes, such is the life of the house husband. We were quite lucky because our Parisienne friend Anne-Louise offered to let us stay at her parents' apartment (they were on vacation). It was a really nice place (much nicer than Chez Kaku), and it was just 15 minutes by foot to the Arc de Triomphe. Not bad! We got to spend New Year's Eve on the Champs-Elysées soaking up the scene. Don't have too much to say about Paris really. We did very touristy things... Centre Pompidou, catacombs, Champs-Elysées, shopping, Notre Dame, Palais de Tokyo, blah blah. We also saw my cousin, Jennifer, who's lived in Paris for about 15 years now. All in all it was a very good time. Paris--what can I say--it's an unbelievably city.

Katie and I had both been to Paris before but it was interesting this time coming from Toulouse. The streets and sidewalks of Paris are much much larger than Toulouse so it was a bit strange seeing so many cars and having these expansive sidewalks to stroll down. Which leads me to one FANTASTIC aspect about Paris... there is far less dog crap on the sidewalks!!! Yes, I admit that I'm fixated on this topic (see my 11/12 entry). I used to think that the Parisian sidewalks were disgusting, but compared with Toulouse it's practically heaven. In some parts of the city I think it's possible to walk without looking down every 5 seconds. I originally thought this was simply a matter of real estate: wider sidewalks + lots of trees = more places for dogs to do their business; however, Katie's boss Pierre informed us that this was a result of a concerted effort by Paris to clean things. Apparently they even had pooper-scooper machines. To my amazement, Pierre told us (without any prodding from us) that the situation in Toulouse was quite bad.

It was also a bit strange seeing so many tourists (French and otherwise) around. It's actually much harder to speak French here because everyone just cuts straight to English (when it becomes obvious that you're not French, i.e. the instant you begin talking). I occasionally wondered what it would like to live in Paris with so much to do and see, but I'm quite happy to be in Toulouse where it's not so overrun with foreigners. Besides, there are no A380s flying overhead each day. :)