The other week a Starbucks appeared suddenly just down the road from me. It was incredibly quick too - one minute it was a rather pathetic supermarket that left the bars on it's windows even during the day (umm, inviting!), the next it was a very modern looking Starbucks. There were already laptop tapping people staring out of the window with bored expressions - sometimes when I see things like this I just can't seeing it all like a game of Sims - click of a mouse, starbuck appears, then little people appear from nowhere and walk in, buy coffee, open laptop, unless of course, the people were actually delivered with the Starbucks franchise kit, and the owner needs to place them in strategic marketing-optimised positions (but make sure the coffee odour street fan is on first!).

Anyway, I remember when the first Starbucks appeared in Paris (back in the heyday of 2004!), and everyone was both astonished and disappointed. This wasn't anti-american sentiment, but more a anti-commercialism feeling. Coffee in France isn't about the coffee (which isn't very good), but the standing at bars with a cigarette, or sitting on a terrasse with a cigarette, being social and being French with a cigarette. Starbucks is about walking around with a cup in your hand (never never never do this in France!!!), or sitting in an AC enclosed space being irradiated by wi-fi.

So, now there are 19 Starbucks here. The invasion hasn't been as quick as expected, but it's still rolling along. I'm not sure it'll reach the saturated state of London (more there than Manhatten!), but it's getting there. One day Champs Elysées, Rivoli, bd St Germain and bd St Michel will be mirror images of all the other major cities, one big StarbucksNerosSubwayMcDonaldsUnoTacoBell...