The song “Joe Le Taxi” by Vanessa Paradis contains the line “Vas-y fonce, dans la nuit vers l’Amazone”. Ostensibly that means “Speed on through the night towards the Amazon”, but I’m sure I remember someone telling me that “Amazone” is actually a play on “à ma zone” which means “in my area”, which is slang for, well, not what a 14-year-old girl ought to be singing about. :dubious:
Is there any truth to this, Franco-dopers, or is it just a case of “It’s in French, it’s gotta be rude”?
Doesn’t really work as a French pun - it would have to be saying “vers là ma zone”, meaning “towards there, my zone”. Doesn’t really flow, does it ?
That being said, the line doesn’t really make sense in context, either - Joe being a (probably) Parisian taxi driver, the fuck does he have to do with the Amazon ? Well, not much, admittedly. But in French culture, the Amazon is also sort of like Katmandu - some sort of exotic, fantabulous land the most important feature of which is that it’s far away from here. Also mysterious. So maybe Joe’s mystique comes from the fact that he can take you to weird places you hadn’t even heard about, even though they’re like 2 blocks from your house ? Your guess is as good as mine.
Almost forgot: “zone” isn’t slang for… what you think it stands for, either :). Here, “la zone” refers to the decrepit projects, the ghettos, the crumbling suburbs - you know, the place where “the urban demographic” lives ? Not exactly glamour, I don’t think.
Well I’d never heard it either, so the person who told me this was clearly full of it 
BTW I took the Amazon thing to be a reference to the mambo and rumba music he listens to in his “caisse”. Does caisse mean cab in this context, btw?
Does she also sing the “real” lyrics to “Louis, Louis”?
In France it’s “Louis, Louis, Louis, Louis, Louis, Louis, Louis, Louis, Louis, Louis, Louis, Louis, Louis, Louis, Louis, Louis.”
I know that song. It ends with some really rather impressive chops.