like the band said, “Ramble On”

I’ve already written a long apologetic (not polemic)) about France and the French, but I’ve been thinking today – I had another tooth extraction so there’s been plenty of time for thinking. But if there was one (non culinary – that wouldn’t be fair) thing about France and the French that I love is that it’s OK to be clever with them, in fact they positively welcome it.

What’s the evidence for this crazy, anti anglo-saxon statement?

Let’s break it down…

Museums

Yes, the UK has some world class museums with some world class exhibits – the British Museum is a gem, and I am excited beyond words at my forthcoming school trip to the Design Museum in London, but if you consider the “crown jewels” of British Museums (or at least London Museums) – the South Ken mob of the Science, Natural History and V & A Museums they have fallen into the trap – known widely and sadly as “dumbing down”. Exhibitions are mounted to extract maximum “wow factor” – in many cases by shrouding the splendid Victorian/Edwardian buildings they exist in, and by ensuring maximum “participation” in the exhibits. The result of this is that kid remember their trip to the museum because they pushed loads of buttons that made something happen – but they couldn’t tell you what and why, because the descriptive part comes second to presentation. In France however, museums and galleries offer the objects and exhibits in an open, accessible way – largely in buildings which celebrate architecture as an art in itself (qv the petit and grands palais of Paris) They have few options for interaction but are no less engrossing for it. The newly refurbished musee de l’armee at les Invilides has no handles to turn, no trench systems to run about in – but does have troops of French schoolchildren looking carefully at preserved cases of propoganda materials which they discuss intelligently and with a sense of the context in which they were created.

The Petit Palais held two exhibitions, one about the classical, European origins of the works of Walt Disney (“il etait une fois Walt Disney”) which was the first time for 25 years that I had felt the urge to watch classic Disney cartoons – but intelligently juxtaposed with early cinema gems from Hertzog et al. The other exhibition was called “design contre design” and was very simply a number of pieces of furniture, objects d’art and ephemera which looked impossibly modern, but dated from 1900 to 1960 – it challenged perceptions in a building which was also able to serve a wonderful green salad and a glass of wine in unpretentious surroundings.  The cafe was there clearly to allow people to sit, relax and discuss what they had seen in a way that the burger and chip fests of the UK do not easily allow.

Rap Music.

US Style Rap:

hawty had them Apple Bottom Jeans [Jeans]
Boots with the fur [With the fur]
The whole club was lookin at her
She hit the flo [She hit the flo]
Next thing you know
Shawty got low low low low low low low low.

(c) Flo Rida – the no.1 Billboard Rap song.

French Rap

“La France est une farce et on s’est fait trahir
Tu sais, ils ont tenté de nous salir,
Oui moi j’ai parlé de garce notamment de la France
Ils m’interdisent de dire en face, mais t’inquiètes je le pense
Accusé d’inciter à prendre les armes,
Mais ce texte n’était qu’un signal d’alarme,
Messieurs, comprenez le sens de notre discours,
Ne pas confondre un appel au meurtre et un appel au secours”

(c) Sniper (a french Rap group from the Paris Banliues)

The difference? – One bangs on ad nauseum about the various items of leisure wear that the protagonist is wearing in a faintly misogonist way.  The other, incredibly eloquently addresses the difficulties experienced in the Paris suburbs during the riots of 2005 closing with the phrase “do not confuse a call for help for a call to murder” – booty call indeed.

Cafes

A cafe in France is a place that a coffee can be bought and with it comes rental of a table for as long as you want, a fabulous cup of coffee and – crucially – if you are open to it, the opportunity to discuss such things as politics, philosophy, art or religion – with someone who won’t consider you a nutter.

In the UK you often find a sign reminding you not to eat your own sandwiches, a table covered in ripped sugar packets and sugar and either some watery coffee style beverage or some sickly sweet approximation of cub scout camp coffee, you will also have had to buy the drink in a paper cup (cradled in a cardboard sleeve) and take it back to your own table.

I know that there are loads of things that are better in the UK – I live here, but I just like the fact that France celebrates intellect (academie Francais, etc) and is not afraid to flaunt it