Take the RER D line and wander in the harsh streets of a city full of character
Take subway line 13 and have a bite at McDo or in the bistros of a city full of hot chicks and plain wetbacks
If you like to travel, take the tramway and go to the marketplace. In an hour you'll go through Algiers and Tangiers.
You'll see Yugos and Roms, and then I'll take you to Lisboa
And 2 steps away from New-Delhi and Kharashi (see, I reviewed my geography), I'll take you for some good Mafé in Bamako and Yamussukro
And if you prefer, we'll go right across the corner and have a pancake there where it smells like Quimper and it looks a bit like Finistère.
And then, going back through Tizi-uzu, we'll end up in the Antillas, there where big mamas are going "Pst, what are you girl doing here?"
Inside Saint-Denis market, your elbows better be sharp. If you don't like being jostled, you'll have to stay zen.
But no doubt you'll get your ears full of accents and your nose of smells.
After the market we'll go for a walk in the République street, the cheap shops sanctuary.
The favourite street of the cute well dressed Arab girls, with their neat high heels and discolored hairs.
In front of zouk shops I'll teach you how to dance. If we go to the post office, I'll teach you patience...
The République street leads to the basilica, where all kings of France are burried, as you surely know it! After geography, a small history lecture.
Behind this imposing building, I take you to the end of the alley, in a more friendly place: welcome to the cultural café.
There we will be able to chat, have a drink or play checkers. Some Friday evening, there are even Slam events.
If you wand a good meal for nothing, I know well all the slightly sticky good places.
Here we'll meet all the good-for-nothing, the jet-set of aristocrappies.
In the evenings, there's not much to do, not many open places.
Except the stadium movie theater where gangs gather: welcome to riffraff-land!
These ones dream about the day they will be able to say "I'm someone !" and know very well Kool Sheen is just Bruno Lopez.
It's not a bowl of cherries but it's a living city. There's always something going on, for me it's a treat.
I know well how it works, how it bends, there are always new people in town, and a lot of naughty boys,
I want to write a beautiful page [about the] city of a thousand faces, downtown Saint-Denis, my village.
I have 93200 reasons to let you know this town. And you have as many ways to discover all its attractions.
I'm more than fond of this damned city, even though I'd like to clobber the cell phone snatchers from the Caquet place.
Saint-Denis, unrivaled city, Saint-Denis my capital, Saint-Denis the unusual... Where you can find hallal sauerkraut even in combi stores!
Here we're proud to live in Saint-Denis, I hope I convinced you. And if you call me a Parisian, I'll ram my walking stick up your...
sydrhill
Sun, 26/08/2012 - 00:51
Guest on 2012-08-20
Take a trip to Saint-Denis and discover another side of France. Believe me, it's worth the effort.
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Grand corps malade is actually using a walking stick due to the sequels of serious health problems.
The creole sentence "toi aussi kaou ka fé la ma fille !" could be translated to French as "qu'est-ce que tu fais-là, ma fille ?" (what are you girl doing here?)
"verlan" is an extremely common French slang, where words are formed by splitting and inverting the halves. Some additional orthographic/phonetic mutations may render the identification of the original word problematic.
'verlan' itself is formed as "l'envers" (upside-down) -> "l'en'-"vers" (splitting) -> "vers"-"l'en" (inverting) -> verlan (orthographic simplification)
Some verlan words acquired an existence of their own. Some others can be made up as needed.
Examples of 'official' verlan:
femme (pronounced as "fam") -> fa-me -> me-fa -> meuf : a woman, a girlfriend
flic -> c-fli -> keu-fli -> keu-f -> keuf : a cop
Arabe -> rabe-a -> rabe-eu -> reube-eu -> rebeu : a person of Arab origin
racaille -> caillera : riffraff, a screwed-up kid, or sometimes more specifically a screwed-up girl
"on the fly" verlan in this song
nez -> zen (nose)
physique -> sique-phy (to act physically strong; to barge in)
marcher -> ché-mar (to walk, to have a walk)
Now for a small lexicon:
RER (réseau express régional) -> a Paris-specific subway train network
McDo -> Mc Donald's
bonne go -> hot chick
clando -> illegal alien, wetback (from 'clandestin' ; sounds a bit like 'clodo' (a bum))
gros -> plain (with a slightly pejorative/affectionate nunace)
Yougo -> Yugoslav (immigrants)
Mafé -> an African main dish very common in Mali (and other countries)
re-noi -> black people (verlan of 'noir')
Quimper -> a city in French brittany
Finistère -> a region of French Brittany. Lots of people from this relatively poor region come to Paris for economical reasons. There is also a stronger than usual feeling of cultural belonging in this community.
Zouk -> a music genre originating from Martinique (if I'm not mistaken!). As an extension, the West Indian lifestyle.
Aristocrasseux -> an invented word, based on "aristocrate" and "crasseux" (filthy). "the slum aristocrats"
Kiffant -> cool, great, pleasant (from "kaïf", the sensation caused by cannabis)
Carrefour -> a big combi store franchise
dionysien -> the name of Saint-Denis inhabitants. Naming city inhabitants with overcomplicated adjectives from Latin origin is a national hobby.
Paname -> affectionate slang for "Paris"
Two bits about France, including some you might not find in "Let's go to Europa":
- French post offices are famous for their huge queues, especially in populated districts.
- Most of the French kings are indeed burried in the Saint-Denis basilica. They were also baptised, crowned and married there. Even though it has become one of the poorest suburbs of Paris, Saint-Denis was a very important town until French revolution.
- Cultural cafés are widespread in France. The idea is to add a cultural touch to the cafés, to develop positive socialization places for populations suffering from various social difficulties (poverty, unemployment, cultural integration).
- Saint-Denis also hosts the "Stade de France", a huge football stadium built in the 90's,where most of international matches are played
- Kool Shen AKA Bruno Lopez is a French rap figure born in Saint-Denis
- 93200 is the zip code of Saint-Denis