February’s Breakfast Scrolls: Do you really need to get up?
Stay a little while longer.
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Welcome to Breakfast Scrolls, the mid-month edit of my What’s Up, Paris? newsletter. Here’s to hoping you’ve got someone on hand to bring you brekkie so you get to lounge about in bed a little longer to mingle with French rap authority Narjes Bahhar, catch up on some Paris news, plan a weekend to a forgotten corner of Champagne to this great farm restaurant, and stretch your legs in one of the last places in Paris that still feels like a village.
Breakfast reads 🥞
Who said reading is dead? From newspapers to magazines, Substacks to social media, here’s what’s new this week.
Paris bouquinistes (booksellers) no longer have to relocate | The New York Times
What’s it like inside Disneyland Paris’ big new hotel? | Condé Nast Traveller
Old Paris balconies ‘pose risk to crowds watching the Olympics opening ceremony’ | The Guardian
Chaumet uses iron from the Eiffel Tower in the 2024 Olympic medals | Forbes
Get this beef and onion dish at a new kind of Chinese deli opening this month | Superchina
A guide to Paris’ 20 arrondissements for the first-time visitor by myself and writer Catherine Le Nevez | Lonely Planet
Morning mingle ☕
If it’s not daylight yet, switch on that table lamp. If the sun’s up, then open the shutters/curtains/blinds and enjoy a dose of Narjes Bahhar’s Paris. Deezer France’s French rap editor and host of D.A, this is how she likes to wake up at the weekend…
“I guess I’m Moroccan by transmission,” Narjes, whose parents are from Morocco, tells me on our Zoom call. After several failed attempts to meet in real life - a symptom of busy Paris life - we settled for a remote meeting. To me, she’s Parisian with big dreams of settling in West Coast Africa. I’ve spoken to Narjes once before for a story about French rap music for Lonely Planet last year, and what struck me each time was the ease with which she is able to unpack complexities behind seemingly simple ideas that point to understanding the subtleties of French society through the last few decades to the present-day. She’s able to “scientifise” ideas about how music has reflected societal shifts to almost formulaic accuracy that serves to detect and bring to light layers that all too often fly under the radar and go unnoticed.
Like most people today, I too have a short attention span, but not when it comes to listening to Narjes riff on how, thanks to the plurality of rap cultures, we’re able to get under the surface of undocumented challenges, developments and issues. Rap music is no longer held within a single genre as the music of the ‘banlieue’ (urban suburbs), or closely associated with American gangster rap denouncing injustice in certain spheres of society. It’s music that’s become intertwined with various musical cultures hailing from Africa, reflecting Parisian society. Some artists have also made it the music of the mundane for people with nine-to-fives. And it’s this shapeshifting quality that fascinates Narjes. So much so that she’s made it her life’s work through her journalistic reporting, hunting for and curating sounds for Deezer, and delving deeper in her interviews with rap artists on her new YouTube rap show project D.A.
I wanted to get to know this multifaceted woman, who at 41 is also a mother of a toddler, lives between cities, and is toying with the idea of living in Côte d’Ivoire, a thriving hotbed of cultures with a vibrant, soulful music scene. Thank you Narjes - it’s always a pleasure to dig a little further with you.
Where do you live?
I was born in the Yvelines, a suburb of Paris, and always lived in the 11th arrondissement of Paris ever since moving here. And when we had our daughter, we moved to the outskirts in Saint Ouen; we actually live between Paris and Bordeaux though.
Why Paris?
I was 23 when I moved here from the suburbs for my journalism studies.
Profession?
I’m a music journalist and editor of French rap and North African music at Deezer France. I’ve also recently launched my own YouTube channel, D.A on which I interview French rap artists old and new.
Why D.A?
D.A stands for ‘direction artistique’ (artistic direction). I needed to rediscover myself, prompting the creation of a platform that enables me to engage with artists on a more profound level - delving into their lives and music without the constraints of a strictly news-oriented approach. Reconnecting with artists I encountered in the early stages of my career has been truly rewarding. Taking a step back offers a valuable perspective, allowing a nuanced view when reflecting on experiences, which I love.
If you weren’t a music editor at Deezer and the host of your show, you would…
Write books - about music!
What’s kept you in Paris?
My and my partner’s jobs and friends.
A neighbourhood you never get bored of.
Paris 11th.
Hidden talent?
I’m actually a pretty good cook, especially Moroccan food - couscous in particular.
Breakfast or brunch?
Brunch. I love savoury breakfasts but I also love lunch, so brunch feels like the perfect compromise. And I love picky, sharing bits.
Where we’d find you on weekends before midday.
Probably still at home with my daughter.
Your weekend starter.
Music! Not mine though, my husband’s actually the DJ of the house.
Bedside reading.
Nothing! I spend too much time scrolling the net…
Weekend brunch spot for under 20 euros.
I don’t really have a go-to anymore but I do like Les Cent Kilos in St Ambroise (Paris 11). They have a sunny terrace too.
A French staple you couldn’t go without.
Baguette and cheese.
Your happy place?
A retrospective at the cinémathèque in Les Halles (Paris 1st).
What people love the most about you
My laugh.
A cliché about Paris that’s true.
Parisians smoke a lot.
Weekend sound.
Al Green’s ‘Love and Happiness’. Gets me every time.
Your favourite Parisian thing of all.
How different each Parisian neighbourhood is. For instance, the 16th is so different from the 13th, the area around the BNF (Bibliothèque Nationale de France; National Library of France). I love that once you live here though, you have ‘your’ bar and ‘your’ café that you always go to in your area. I also love Paris at night too. It’s captivating, especially all the vestiges around the Louvre.
What’s next for you?
We’re hoping to get a bit of financing for my channel D.A, so we can keep going!
See what Narjes Bahhar is up to on her show D.A where she sits down with some of France’s most creative and diverse rap figures and unpacks the turning points and inspirations of their journeys so far. See her latest show where she talks to French rap legend Rim’K.
Micro-itinerary: under the surface in Les Epinettes🚶🏽♀️
Get showered and lace up! It’s time to take a stroll through this seemingly nondescript corner of Paris.
A little slice of village life slotted between Saint Ouen and the Batignolles, 20 mins’ walk from Montmartre, it’s here in a quirky townhouse of pedestrian lane the Cité des Fleurs, one of the few left in the city, that Catherine Deneuve was born, and in another that artist Simon Hantaï lived… Today, while the area’s slowly gentrifying, it’s still a bubble of communities from all over the world, families wanting a calmer pace of life, and artists and models who hide out here during fashion weeks and art fairs.
Lined up along the rue de la Jonquière, Les Epinettes stretches from Guy Moquet metro station close to the bustle of the market shops and stalls of Avenue de Saint Ouen, to the Boulevard Bessières which links to the line 14 at Porte de Saint Ouen. The locals here know they’re onto a good thing with independent bars, restaurants and shops fuelling a small self-contained pocket of Paris.
Directory:
Cité des Fleurs, street of townhouses built in the 1840s.
Chez Lucette, a restaurant with net curtains and mirrored pillars where Rose has been cooking meals for tens of years. So, who’s Lucette? Her sister.
Champs des Rêves organic grocery store where you can sponsor a meal.
Junglii Indian restaurant with the nicest owner and authentic flavours.
Konvives restaurant serving modern bistrot cuisine done well.
Mésère chocolate by Florian; don’t miss the real thick hot chocolate.
Pimpin café owned by half-French, half-English sisters where the carrot cake is top-notch. Also a good place to get some work done.
Ménélik Ethiopian restaurant is a symbol of the original Les Epinettes, scattered with African cafés and restaurants that are slowly giving way to other businesses.
Hasard Ludique bar on Paris’ abandoned railway inside a former railway station always has something on; and if not, lounging on its terrace is plenty enough.
L’Usage du Monde bookshop with staff that makes great recommendations; there’s an English section and readings by some of the authors whose books they stock.
Octopussy bar with always at least five types of craft beer on tap and couch to sink into on cold blustery nights.
Fromagerie Goncourt where they offer very good cheeses from all over France.
Everyone’s always at Irène et Bernard or the next two bars along, all with terraces for summer.
Les Deux Coupoles has to be my favourite bistrot; think 70s interiors, the best staff and home cooked French meals eaten to the owner’s best picks of 80s music clips. What’s not to love?
Foodie weekender: dip into the French countryside just beyond Paris
Two hours out of the city, there’s a little corner of Champagne with a farm restaurant to put on your list for a weekend away.
The sleepy little village of Gyé-sur-Seine in Champagne, couldn’t be more different than Reims, the regional capital, with its seething champagne houses packed with visitors from all over the world, come to sip on the golden tipple. Two hours’ drive from Paris, Gyé is much quieter - so quiet in fact that you have to book a tour or tasting at its maisons like Moêt & Chandon and Josselin well in advance or chances are they’ll be closed - but if you’re in need of some downtime, this little spot along the Seine, with Mediaeval houses and pre-Roman villages nearby like Châtillon-sur-Seine, is perfect to retreat to.
What brought me here though some months ago, was Le Garde Champêtre, a farm with a restaurant in the spot of Gyé’s former train station. A revolving chefs’ residency, chef Hugh Corcoran was overseeing things in the kitchen while I was here, whipping up crunchy seasonal veggies with melt-in-the-mouth lamb sourced from a nearby farm.
The menu (from three-five courses), goes from 28-65 euros without wine. Speaking of which, they have a killer selection, especially of lesser known craft champagne maisons. Two nights in the area is plenty to explore the surroundings and you can rent a room at the Garde Champêtre’s River House, a little abode in the village with cosy interiors (rooms start at 120 euros for two), a vegetable garden and a stream flowing at the bottom of the garden. You’ll be wondering why you haven’t jumped on the bandwagon and set up your own restaurant with rooms in the French countryside too… legardechampetre.fr
Until next time… leaving you with Bouge Bouge by French artist Corine, to get up and get ready to 🎶.
