# Quick Question re: Les Miserables (the musical) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 22, 2009, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-question-re-les-miserables-the-musical/511096 "2009-09-22T15:59:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2009, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-question-re-les-miserables-the-musical/511096/1 "2009-09-22T15:59:17Z")
Gavroche sings: > [@](#): > > _This is my school, my high society, > Here in the slums of Ste. Michel, > We live off crumbs of humble piety, > Tough on the teeth, but what the hell?_ Is/was this Ste. Michel a real place? If so, approximately where in modern Paris would this place be/have been? ---
**Author:** ![choie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/choie/32/7829_2.png) [@choie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/choie)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2009, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-question-re-les-miserables-the-musical/511096/2 "2009-09-22T17:01:58Z")
That probably refers to the area near the Chapel Saint-Michel\* in Paris’s Latin Quarter, a section in the 5th arrondissement that’s traditionally been a big hang-out area for students and artistic types. It’s now called Place Saint-Michel (St. Michael’s Square). [Here’s the Boulevard Saint-Michel,](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boulevard_Saint-Michel) which was constructed later but still exists today. - Hence the kinda cringeworthy reference to “humble piety.” (Is that really something a street urchin would say?) ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Fight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/90ced4/32.png) [@Cat\_Fight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Fight)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2009, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-question-re-les-miserables-the-musical/511096/3 "2009-09-22T17:35:59Z")
From [Gridskipper](http://gridskipper.com/archives/entries/065/65498.php#Map) > [@](#): > > Much of Victor Hugo’s Paris was erased by Baron Haussmann, including the former rue Plumet, where Cosette and Jean Valjean lived, which was in the Faubourg St-Germain and … gave onto the rue de Babylone. Today the rue Plumet is a street in the 15th. And the “slums of St Michel” that Gavroche refers to are now only a mess of franchise restaurants, chain stores, students, and Vélibeurs. But it’s true that in Paris “in the rain the pavement shines like silver” and “all the lights are misty in the river.” And I believe it’s pronounced ‘umble pie’y’ (for some reason Gavroche always goes Cockney). ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2009, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-question-re-les-miserables-the-musical/511096/4 "2009-09-22T20:25:49Z")
> [@choie](#): > > - Hence the kinda cringeworthy reference to “humble piety.” (Is that really something a street urchin would say?) Heh…are you really calling this out in a genre where characters spontaneously break into a coordinated song and dance in the middle of the street? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![choie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/choie/32/7829_2.png) [@choie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/choie)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2009, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-question-re-les-miserables-the-musical/511096/5 "2009-09-22T21:47:21Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > Heh…are you really calling this out in a genre where characters spontaneously break into a coordinated song and dance in the middle of the street? 🙂 Well, yeah! I mean, I can accept six impossible things before breakfast, which is necessary in order to appreciate musicals or operas or ballets. But for me that seventh problemmatic issue is dialogue that doesn’t make sense for a character’s level of education / upbringing / personality. I have to draw the line somewhere. This far, no further! [del]And I will make them pay for what they have done![/del] ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2009, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-question-re-les-miserables-the-musical/511096/6 "2009-09-22T22:10:39Z")
> [@choie](#): > > Well, yeah! I mean, I can accept six impossible things before breakfast, which is necessary in order to appreciate musicals or operas or ballets. But for me that seventh problemmatic issue is dialogue that doesn’t make sense for a character’s level of education / upbringing / personality. For me, the problematic question in Les Miz is why Valjean tears open his shirt like Superman to vindicate the innocent guy. Talk about dialogue that doesn’t make sense: our hero reveals he’s got “24601” tattooed on his own chest to prove the defendant _ **doesn’t?** _ Wouldn’t he just tell 'em to open the _ **other** _ guy’s shirt? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![MilTan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@MilTan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MilTan)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2009, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-question-re-les-miserables-the-musical/511096/7 "2009-09-22T22:34:34Z")
Dammit, **Waldo** , you’ve permanently ruined my enjoyment of _Les Mis_ forever more. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2009, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-question-re-les-miserables-the-musical/511096/8 "2009-09-22T22:53:13Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > For me, the problematic question in Les Miz is why Valjean tears open his shirt like Superman to vindicate the innocent guy. Talk about dialogue that doesn’t make sense: our hero reveals he’s got “24601” tattooed on his own chest to prove the defendant _ **doesn’t?** _ Wouldn’t he just tell 'em to open the _ **other** _ guy’s shirt? > > 😉 In some productions they get around this by having the brand be a black bar across his chest, either like the numbers bled together over the years or an actual rectangle-shaped brand. (I believe that’s what was done with the Broadway revival.) When my friend played Valjean in Philadelphia last summer, we talked about this one night. He also felt it didn’t make much sense for the brand to read 24601 when all Javert would have had to do is look at Champmathieu’s chest to see that he had arrested the wrong man. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2009, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-question-re-les-miserables-the-musical/511096/9 "2009-09-22T22:55:59Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > For me, the problematic question in Les Miz is why Valjean tears open his shirt like Superman to vindicate the innocent guy. Talk about dialogue that doesn’t make sense: our hero reveals he’s got “24601” tattooed on his own chest to prove the defendant _ **doesn’t?** _ Wouldn’t he just tell 'em to open the _ **other** _ guy’s shirt? In a deleted scene, Javert does that, and concludes that the man must simply have had a laser tattoo removal procedure.