Bourgeois-bohemian, French-style

Today, the Feast of the Assumption, is the quietest public holiday of the French year. Like New Year's Day, August 15 is a seasonal turning point. The day of Notre Dame is a lull near the end of the grandes vacances when the mood changes and thoughts turn to la rentrée -- the return to work, politics and school. All is quiet on the Place de l'Opéra, outside The Times office, so I will tackle a seasonal song.

The radio stations are busy plugging what will become one of the hits of la rentrée: Les bobos. The single (listen here) is the latest offering by Renaud, a singer-composer in the Brassens-Brel-Gainsbourg tradition but more of a rock rebel. The post-sixties generation (I admit to being one) like his working class attitude and caustic, poignant lyrics. Les bobos is funny because Renaud, 54 years old and somewhat the worse for wear, does such a good job skewering les bourgeois-bohêmes, the class that includes much of his fan base.

France adopted the Bourgeois-Bohemian expression with gusto after it was coined in 2000 by David Brooks, the New York journalist, for the well-heeled urban classes who see themselves as hip, cool and a bit counter-culture. In Manhattan, Brooks diagnosed the convergence between the "espresso-sipping artist" and the "cappuccino-gulping banker"

Bobo in French covers a broader spectrum, more middle class than the richer American or British version. The idea is the same but the term is more negative in France, a country where class enmity is still very much part of life. Bertrand Delanoe, the Socialist Mayor of Paris, acknowledges that his election in 2001 owed much to his popularity with the bobos who are coming to dominate the high-priced intra-muros city. Unlike their conservative bourgeois parents, les bobos like Delanoe's leftwing, green politics and have no objections to his being gay.

In his song, Renaud simply lists the references of the French bobo life and they are spot on -- from shopping at Ikea to admiring Nicolas Sarkozy, the tough-talking Interior Minister and conservative star.

You can read the original, with its inside jokes, at the end of this, but here are a few lines.  "They are a new class, after the bourgeois and the proletarians.. They are a bit artistic but their passion is their job ... They live in the posh quartiers,  or in the suburbs in an artist's loft...Their well-off children read Le Petit Prince at age 6 and go to private schools... They occasionally smoke a joint, they shop at biological markets and drive 4x4s (SUVs) but they  prefer to get around on bicycles.... They read Houellebecq or Philippe Djian, les Inrocks and Télérama.. They listen all day on their stereos to France-Info (news), Alain Bashung and Françoise Hardy. The woman dresses at Diesel and the man at Kenzo.. They visit a lot of museums and galleries and old bistrots...

Les Inrockuptibles and Télérama are entertainment magazines favoured by the younger thinking classes.

Renaud has the honesty at the end to conclude: "My words are a bit vicious towards these people that I don't care much for. In some ways, I suppose I am one of them." 

He also notes that they typically work in the media. This point is important because la rentree is the real start of campaign for next spring's presidential elections. Winning the bobo vote is vital for the main candidates because the class has such a big influence on opinion. Both Sarkozy and Ségolène Royal, the likely Socialist candidate, qualify as bobos, though in their early 50s they are slightly older than the class mainstream. That is why so many bourgeois bohemians are agonising about which one to vote for.

Lyrics to Bobos, by Renaud:

On les appelle bourgeois bohêmes
Ou bien bobos pour les intimes
Dans les chanson d'Vincent Delerm
On les retrouve à chaque rime
Ils sont une nouvelle classe
Après les bourges et les prolos
Pas loin des beaufs, quoique plus classe
Je vais vous en dresser le tableau
Sont un peu artistes c'est déjà ça
Mais leur passion c'est leur boulot
Dans l'informatique, les médias
Sont fier d'payer beaucoup d'impôts

Les bobos, les bobos
Les bobos, les bobos

Ils vivent dans les beaux quartiers
ou en banlieue mais dans un loft
Ateliers d'artistes branchés,
Bien plus tendance que l'avenue Foch
ont des enfants bien élevés,
qui ont lu le Petit Prince à 6 ans
Qui vont dans des écoles privées
Privées de racaille, je me comprends

ils fument un joint de temps en temps,
font leurs courses dans les marchés bios
Roulent en {x4}4, mais l'plus souvent,
préfèrent s'déplacer à vélo

Les bobos, les bobos
Les bobos, les bobos

Ils lisent Houellebecq ou philippe Djian,
Les Inrocks et Télérama,
Leur livre de chevet c'est surand
Près du catalogue Ikea.
Ils aiment les restos japonais et le cinéma coréen
passent leurs vacances au cap Ferret
La côte d'azur, franchement ça craint
Ils regardent surtout ARTE
Canal plus, c'est pour les blaireaux
Sauf pour les matchs du PSG
et d'temps en temps un p'tit porno

Les bobos, les bobos
Les bobos, les bobos

Ils écoutent sur leur chaîne hi fi
France-info toute la journée
Alain Bashung Françoise Hardy
Et forcement Gérard Manset
Ils aiment Desproges sans même savoir
que Desproges les détestait
Bedos et Jean Marie Bigard,
même s'ils ont honte de l'avouer
Ils aiment Jack Lang et Sarkozy
Mais votent toujours Ecolo
Ils adorent le Maire de Paris,
Ardisson et son pote Marco

Les bobos, les bobos
Les bobos, les bobos

La femme se fringue chez Diesel
Et l'homme a des prix chez Kenzo
Pour leur cachemire toujours nickel
Zadig & Voltaire je dis bravo
Ils fréquentent beaucoup les musées,
les galeries d'art, les vieux bistrots
boivent de la manzana glacée en écoutant Manu chao
Ma plume est un peu assassine
Pour ces gens que je n'aime pas trop
par certains côtés, j'imagine...
Que j'fais aussi partie du lot

Les bobos, les bobos
Les bobos, les bobos

Comments

[Frank Schnittger]

Its nice to hear music with a sharp social commentary and critical edge. Protest and satirical music with articulate lyrics is so rare in the "Anglo-Saxon" world nowadays - or else I'm just getting to be very out of touch. I’m still listening to Clapton, Dire Straits and Dylan for heaven’s sake! Fell in love with Françoise Hardy in my teens though. Glad to har she’ still going strong.

[Robert Marchenoir]

Sarkozy, a bobo? Nonsense. Having vocal left-wing opinions is part and parcel of being a bobo, in my opinion.

I do not understand how Renaud manages to define their political leanings by associating them with Jack Lang, as well as Nicolas Sarkozy and the Green Party. These affiliations seem pretty incompatible to me, especially the one between Lang and Sarkozy.

That being said, a review of French blogs is enough to realize that "bobo", in French, is an intended insult which is rarely defined, and with good reason: it takes very different meanings according to the speaker.

To some, it means liberal, nominally rebellious types who tend to work in the media, the entertainment industry or the arts, have tidy incomes, and insist on their left-wing world-views.

To others, it means the same, irrespective of income.

To others yet, it just means upper-middle class people, with more money than themselves (and supposedly supporters of free-trade economics and right-wing politics).

But then, thirty years ago, we had the ubiquitous "bourgeois" hate-figure, hadn't we? And it was just as ill-defined as "bobo".

[Robert Marchenoir]

Message to the webmasters: I am seriously considering suing The Times for agist discrimination (and providing the newspaper with some entertaining copy in the process).

Your anti-spambot code is the most difficult to read in the whole blogosphere. My vision is getting poorer with each comment I post here.

Obviously, you are in cahoots with eye doctors and/or are trying to get rid of your older readers. But we, middle-aged bloggers, are not to be taken lightly. Beware! Grey power is coming to the Internet!

[Michel R, Aix-en-Provence]

Robert - As Renaud says in his song, Bobos do like Sarkozy, but "are a bit ashamed" of that. I think it is quite accurately observed. Nicolas Sarkozy is actually very popular in trendy but wealthy Parisian circles. Don't forget that Bobos have money, and when you do, you tend to like Order, which Sarko today epitomizes.

But their "artitistic and rebel fibre" mades them struggling to admit it, especially in front of the new generation, who *is* "artistic and rebel" but do not have money - the true "Sarko-haters".

In the end, I think Ségolène Royal will get most of the Bobo vote (if she manages to get elected by the PS): she incarnates the truly Bourgeois-Bohemian cocktail, Order and the Left.

[christopher muir]

One must ask- do these bobos do anything that's useful? It seems that they read, listen and pedal a lot, but can anybody name me a contemporary French writer, composer or poet who is classified as a bobo? The life of true Bohemians was well documented by Henri de Murger, but in those unwired days genuine creative spirits penned, coughed. froze and cared for each other.

[Frank Schnittger]

It is so difficult to be both wealthy and left-wing at the same time. I struggle with it daily. As someone once said "Labour is always wrestling with it's conscience - and Labour always wins!"

[Sarah Hague]

Are bobos an exclusively Parisien set as it seems to be described here? Or can anyone join in? Is there an 'Association 1901 Bobo' that one can apply to, to be incorporated into the ranks, or is it just another social stereotype to be despised by all us provinçals as yet another example of Parisien posturing?
Enquiring minds wish to know...

[Dr. Fabian Tassano]

Good for the French that someone is brave enough to satirise their liberal elite, and point out that most of the leftist intelligentsia are relatively protected from the consequences of the interventions they support, and indeed belong to the class that they affect to despise.

Wouldn't it be nice if a British pop musician could do the same with our own Champagne socialists. Unfortunately, all our pop musicians are fully paid up lefties who wouldn't dream of undermining the anti-bourgeois cause. Those who benefited from "privileged" backgrounds, such as Coldplay's Chris Martin, shout their anti-capitalist slogans even harder than the rest.

[Robert Marchenoir]

At least, Dr. Tassano, the most distinguished rocker in Britain -- indeed, in the world --, Sir Mick Jagger, does not pretend to fight for the downtrodden. And he pays only 1,6% tax on his considerable revenue. Maybe this is one of the skills he learned at the London School of Economics?

[Deborah]

Yes, and isn't it wonderful that there are endless discussions about politics and about what is in the news here in France.

The spectrum is vast but it is so agreeable to be able to say what one thinks and your opponent will listen and say 'well yes, but'

Haven't heard the song yet but j'fais aussi partie du lot

Had a friend round yesterday and she said I was Bobo ... definitely an accusation!

[Swift]

If being called a bobo is derogatory then what does it make someone like me who unashamedly aspires to be a bit of a bobo?! I’m a watered down English version, I suppose.

I work in media, love sushi (only since my 15-month stay in Paris), listen to Delerm (and Renaud) and used to reside two paces from the Jardins de Luxembourg (a veritable beau quartier, n’est-ce pas?) and prior to that a loft on the up-and-coming Rue Charlot. I stayed clear of the Avenue Foch and that whole end of town, except when dropping into the Palais de Toyko (a boho endroit, surely?).

I see myself as a bit of an artist too, read Houellebecq and les Inrocks and spent most of my spare time in museums, art galleries and bistros. When living in Bordeaux two years previously I went everywhere on bike – supplied most kindly by the mairie thanks to the then mayor Alain Juppé. Oh yes, with my housemate I used to pop down to the occasional visit to Arcachon and Cap Ferret.

When not teaching English in a school, I worked in La Comtesse which, for anyone who is familiar with Le Vieux Bordeaux, is a ‘hip’ joint exclusively frequented by bobos to the extreme where all the strapping barmen come from different countries around the world.

Renaud forgets other characteristics of the French set: long, multi-coloured scarves with tassels; a haircut like a member of The Strokes (not me, but much of the bone fide young bobos of Paris); skinny-jeans (this year); chequered slip-on shoes; a UGC unlimited monthly card; a penchant for picnicking in Buttes Chaumont or by the Seine with a bottle of rosé; Favela Chic; Bar de Jemappes on the Canal St Martin; Sunday walks in the Marais; eating couscous in Belleville; going out in Oberkampf; browsing the FNAC; playing the guitar… All these are pretty conducive to being a bobo, but more so the young variety, and not the 30-something married prototype that the ageing crooner addresses in his song.

Is it an exclusively Parisian phenomenon? Not entirely. Bobos infiltrate many other towns and places, but their influence invariably comes from spending time / pretending to have spent time in the Grande Babylone.

Of course, being a London boho is a very different kettle of fish. In London it is more a thing about money rather than image. Or actually money transferred through image and/or money disguised by image. The nearest equivalent are usually those unenvied souls from West London - you know, the despicable bunch who preach about their ethnicity and fair trade ties, but really just hang out drinking champers and smoking in Annabels or Boujis with their collars up…

I suppose the Hoxton/Shoreditch set are another version of English bohos – the equivalent of the arty types who hand out in the bars in Oberkampf with ironic haircuts before heading into the Marais for a drink in the ridiculously popular La Perle bar behind the Picasso museum (have you seen the toilets) before going to Truskel rock club where they drink beer and often do more than fumer un joint…

[Swift]

Suit jacket (preferably pinstripe of corduroy), jeans and trendy white trainers.

[Pierre]

Thanks to his songs, Renaud made a Bobo out most people in their forties today (including myself ?). I cannot resist recalling a few lines of his most famous satirical portraits.

Mon Beauf (1980)

(...) Y a dans sa discothèque tout Richard Clayderman
Y trouve ça super chouette c'est l'Mozart du Walkman
Et pi dans sa R 16 y a la C.B. tu penses
"73 la station tête de nœud en fréquence"
Pi bonjour la culture il est 'achment balaise
T'as qu'a voir ses lecture ça casse des barreaux d'chaises
V.S.D Paris-Match et puis Télé 7 jours
Pi bien sûr chaque années y s'offre le prix Goncourt

Mon HLM (1980)

Au troisième, dans mon HLM;
Y a l'espèce de connasse,
Celle qui bosse dans la pub',
L'hiver à Avoriaz,
Le mois d' juillet au Club.
Comme toutes les décolorées,
Elle a sa Mini-Cooper,
Elle allume tout l' quartier
Quand elle sort son cocker.
Aux manifs de gonzesses,
Elle est au premier rang,
Mais elle veut pas d'enfants
Parc' que ça fait vieillir,
Ça ramollit les fesses
Et pi ça fout des rides,
Elle l'a lu dans l'Express,
C'est vous dire si elle lit!

Hexagone (1980 ?)

Ils commémorent au mois de juin
un débarquement d'Normandie,
ils pensent au brave soldat ricain
qu'est v'nu se faire tuer loin d'chez lui,
ils oublient qu'à l'abri des bombes,
les Francais criaient "Vive Pétain",
qu'ils étaient bien planqués à Londres,
qu'y avait pas beaucoup d'Jean Moulin.

Etre né sous l'signe de l'hexagone,
c'est pas la gloire, en vérité,
et le roi des cons, sur son trône,
me dites pas qu'il est portugais.

[Negrito]

Hi !
just to let you know that, after Renaud sang the Bobos in Paris,
King negrito decided to put the music in images and went out to make a lot of images of the parisian bobos... check out the video:
http://www.dailymotion.com/kn/video/x15o3y_les-bobos

King Negrito