Our weekly “À Table”dinner series gets its name from the mealtime call to the dining table. Since 2018, we have invited friends new and old to share a meal focusing on food, music and traditions from various places in the Francophone world. It has proved to be a fun way to connect with friends and practice our spoken French. Here on our site, we share portraits of some of our favorite meals so that you can easily do a version of the same chez vous Bon Appétit!

To enhance a deep listen of the song, we took Gaël’s metaphor literally, and tasted it: Rwandan pili pili sauce on a butter croissant.  It is, in fact, a delicious combination, reminiscent of the buttery/spicy buffalo wings of my youth. It also helped fuel an adaptation of the song into English (maintaining the melody and poeticism), which you can sample along with the sauce, below.

The song is a beautifully poetic telling of how Gaël Faye and his sister came to be, the product of a love between his dad (a little French butter croissant) and mom (the Rwandan Pili Pili sauce). And the metaphor tastes delicious in real life as it sounds in the song.

By engaging all of our senses as we listened deeply, the song came even more alive to us and opened up interesting conversations with my own kids who also have two parents of very different origins.

The buttery croissant complements the spicy flavor as if they were meant for each other – no matter how unlikely the combo. Truly delicious, and a lovely reminder that often it’s the things we don’t think “belong” together that in reality, blend to create something newly fabulous.

Try it yourself. Find Gaël Faye on your music platform of choice, and listen to all his amazing music while you make some pili pili sauce to go on a croissant. The recipe, English translation, deep listening tips, and more are all below.

For more information about the album of the same name, below is a great video, and taste of many of its songs (includes English subtitles)!

Thanks to Priscilla (who lived in Rwanda and is married to a Rwandan man) for providing her recipe for Pili Pili sauce! And also thanks to Runner and Stone for the as-always delicious croissants. My kiddos are croissant snobs and Runner and Stone is their favorite.

First, here is the original recording. Even if you don’t know French, I think you will find it to be a beautiful song.

I loved it so much, that as an homage / way to study French, I made this adaptation of the song in English. Attention! This is not simply Google translate! This version maintains the rhymes structure, poeticism and melody. [2023 note: After reading an interview of Gaël Faye in the magazine l’elephant, I learned that Gaël is wary of poetic translations because no two languages can express the same things in the same way. While I don’t pretend that my version rises to the level of his, I think it is a nice homage that can open up the song to anglophones. I do hope I have not offended.]

Below, the lyrics are provided side-by-side so that English speakers can uncover more the depth of meaning (and bilingual readers can nitpick my choices? This was done in 2020, before my 4 years in France!).

This audio from 2020 demonstrates how the original English adaptation fits over the original recording but I need to updated it with the revised adaptation! Also, I’m no professional! I share it to demonstrate the adaptation. Perhaps someday – when I improve my bar chords – maybe I’ll record it while playing guitar (comme celle-ci).

If you’ haven’t read the English translation of his novel Petit Pays, you should (or the original in French if you can! Someday I hope to be able to…). It’s a heartbreaking book, so beautifully written (at least as far as I can tell in translation). It will also enrich your experience of his album Pili Pili Sur un Croissant Beurre album. I look forward to when the film Petit Pays is available in the US.

Thank you Gaël Faye, for your inspiring and beautiful music! Support him by purchasing his music and merchandise here, buying his book (at a local bookstore if you can!), and seeing the film based on his book!

For those of you who have been asking what a deep listen is… it’s just what it sounds like! Just put music on loud, and then…. wait for it just listen. Don’t “multi-task!” No simultaneous flipping through social media, or putzing around… just listen. Really.

In today’s world, just listening is quite hard. I recommend either laying down with eyes closed (and your devices far away!) or keep your hands busy doodling (here’s one recent example from a deep listen of Kabir Sen’s new album: “The Good Life (If You Only Knew)” to keep ears and mind on the music.

Having watched me sketch during a recent deep listen, my kids requested to do the same during our deep listen of “Pili pili sur un croissant au beurre,” and it was a great experience, yielding some great convos afterwards.

A deep listen with others is even more rewarding. Here’s how:

1. Queue up the song, and prepare paper and drawing instruments of choice. If kids are joining you, explain the sequence of events to them so they know what to expect.
2. Without much explanation of the song, play it through once. At the end, share any first impressions. Any words, phrases or ideas jump out or stay with you? Emotions felt? Did it bring up other memories?
3. Read through the lyrics (French and English provided in this portrait), and share any additional thoughts.
4. Listen a second time, and again take the time to reflect together.