A night on rue princesse and at Cab

Last night I went out with Taylor and her friends from Trinity College. Everybody had a great time but of course I was the dorky one and most enjoyed the part of the evening when I got to pick up on French phrases from French people willing to amuse me for a couple of hours. They were really delighted that I was so interested and I ended up speaking the most French that I have spoken yet.

French phrases learned:

"Pétiller" as in, "les yeux pétille": the eyes sparkle, like when you're looking at a person you desire. The French man who taught me this one explained the phrase as, "it's like the bubbles in champagne are in her eyes."

"Il joue sur plusieurs tableaux": he's hitting on all the girls, he's playing the field. Let's just say French bars make for great people watching.

"Pichenette": A little flick made with the thumb and forfinger. The boys seemed to have a game where they would flick each other in the nose.

I must have heard meuf and mec/ type about a thousand times. And a bunch of other argot and verlan that I couldn't quite understand. I asked the guys about it and how often they use it. They told me that people only use it casually and rarely use more than a couple words. However, when I asked them how they felt about l'Acadamie Française, they all emphatically told me, "fuck l'Acadamie Française" and "we never speak the way they say we should … except when we need to get a job." I find it interesting that just a couple words can be seen as definant here, and a couple more can indicate one's social class and background.

All around Paris are reminders of the resistance in WWII and memorials to the French revolution, a time when the people were successful in changing the language, even if by just a few words. I wonder if these young men aren't just a greater part of that resistance mentality -- I wonder if maybe they secretly love l'Academie Français for giving them something to exercise that mentality on.

I think I'm done with the whole Paris party scene for now, but I'm glad I went because I got to use my French a lot. I actually enjoyed the first bar we went to (it helped that they were playing Michael Jackson). However, all of these dance clubs just seem a little too "exclusive," a quality which I have never adored about anything. When we went to Cab, it felt really cool to cut the line and get right in, but I couldn't help but think that this place was filled with more losers than at the bar. Everyone was so dressed up at Cab but the guys reeked of cologne, the girls couldn't dance, and no one was smiling. You couldn't hear yourself talk over the music (which was Amercian anyway), so no one communicated except through some vague interpretation of sign language. Don't get me wrong -- I like dancing -- but this place was full people who thought they were way too cool and I found myself missing that little pub on rue de princesse with the 3 guys who were just happy sitting around and talking to 4 American girls in French.