  It seems that the past and future french language assistants form a fairly tight knit community here on the web. Just an offer to anyone in the NC/SC area...some of us are going to try to get together a couple of times before we leave. I know people who will be in the Lille area (me) as well as a couple of friends who will be posted in Lyon (lucky bastard) and Limoges. Actually, I'm looking forward to being in a different corner of the hexagon. The first time I went to France, I studied in Dijon.
Other than the food, the city doesn't offer much in the way of youth culture. For music fans, there were really only 2 options...there was a Kareoke bar where every French idol wanna be jammed out on Bridgette Bardot show-stoppers. I think I joined the anglo-crowd once or twice in a sloppy, drunken balls-to-the-wall rendition of "I will survive. " It's all gravy to me, anyway. The second option involved a death metal band from somewhere in Belgium.
Usually, music is a response to current cultural trends. Os Mutantes was political music railing against the right wingers in 1960's Brazil. The Vietnamese war spawned its fair share of sloppy, stoner ballads. Joy Division came from a hopelessy dreary dole-line existance in Manchester. What the hell is going on in Belgium that could make these guys so angry? They always looked so pissed off in their posters...I mean, these guys could make Rob Zombie look like the Olsen twins.
They could rival Martha Stewart in raw negative energy. The looks on their faces just zapped my zen. Lille actually has quite a bit more to offer musically, or so I'm told. The last concert I saw here was Death Cab for Cutie and Pedro the Lion. Death Cab was amazing. I'm hoping to catch at least one French band play...right now I'm hoping for an Indochine tour or something. So Viva musik, viva youth culture, and viva la Francia. 
