He laughs a little. "Before Paris? Remarkably uninteresting. I'm fairly sure you already know I'm from Marseille, much like a song I think you're familiar with. I was a passable enough schoolboy in most subjects, unless they involved numbers too much, which of course made me a gross disappointment to my father, who was resolved that I would never amount to much as a result. So I went to Paris at first opportunity to play with paint and the city itself and to see how correct I could prove him."