In Britain, any half-decent singer wouldn't be seen dead crooning for their country in the Euro- vision Song Contest, but it's a different story in France, where one of their coolest musicians, Sébastien Tellier, has recently announced he is thrilled to be representing his country. But then the Paris music scene is so vibrant right now that even the authorities have recognised the talent on their doorstep. Where once young French music lovers had to travel to London for interesting gigs and nightclubs, now the French cap-ital is having a musical revolution - and this being Paris, style is a crucial factor. I meet Tellier in his local bar in Paris, where his long hair and fabulous tailoring give him the air of a designer caveman. He explains that, for him, this renaissance is also about making music that defines something of the French character.

Tellier called his new album Sexuality because he was yearning for pop music that addressed the romance and the intellect of sex. How very, well, French. “The music world is full of sexual albums, but they're a kind of stereotype,” he explains. “I love the sound of American R&B, that's where modernity is now, in that production - but I find the message does not reflect my thoughts.” Sexuality is an electronic record with a dreamy, gentle ambience, on which Tellier also sings in a manner he happily admits is inspired by Serge Gainsbourg. One song, Pulse, features steamy Gallic groans in a nod to Gainsbourg and Birkin's Je t'aime. “Me, I'd like to speak about sex like a Frenchman, like a Latin - with intelligence but not aggression,” he continues, sipping on a lunchtime beer. “When American music talks of sex, it's not in a good way. Here we're more noble, more romantic.”

Indeed, the romance of Parisian musicians has attracted lots of talented outsiders. The film director Sofia Coppola left LA to be with Thomas Mars, the lead singer of hip French band Phoenix, and Johnny Depp did the same to start a family with Vanessa Paradis, whose five albums have all been big news in her home country. Even the intrinsically English Jarvis Cocker has done the unthinkable by marrying a French fashion stylist and moving to Paris. Carla Bruni, not just a model but a chanteuse with three albums under her diamante belt, has even bagged herself the President (though the word from musos is that she's seriously lost her cred in their left-wing circles). And if it was Gainsbourg and Birkin who started all of this pop passion, their daughter Charlotte has continued the legacy with a flourishing music career of her own, some two decades after her Lemon Incest debut.

But for all of this latent Frenchness, they're mainly singing in English. Even Camille, one of the few French-language artists to make a small impact in the UK, decided to record her recent album, Music Hole, in our language, not hers. Tellier explains that, despite government quotas insisting 40 per cent of music broadcast on French radio is sung in French, singing in English is definitely in vogue, although he personally slips between the two. He credits the appeal of English to his friends and collaborators in electronic music, Daft Punk and Air, whose haunting dance music with simple but affecting English lyrics has been hugely influential. (It seems ironic that a government quota designed to encourage French music has been of no benefit to such acts - though it has given a voice to Francophone hip-hop, with its rappers who talk about life sur les rues and dans les HLM - housing estates.)

The young rock band Nelson tell me they can't even imagine recording in French. I meet them at the London venue 93 Feet East, at a night called The French Revolution, a showcase for this nouvelle vague of bands.

The NME has called Nelson “the premier French art-popsters” and labelled them ones to watch in 2008. “We always instinctively write lyrics in English, because that's the culture of the indie-rock we grew up listening to - plus it's easier to sing in,” says their vocalist J.B. Devay. The keyboardist David Nichols says: “You write a song in French. And then you listen to Gainsbourg again. And then you say, OKaay, I guess I have a long way to go.”

They might not want to sound French, but they definitely look it. Nelson say that many French indie bands were influenced by the style of the British act the Libertines, especially when Pete Doherty started working with the French designer Hedi Slimane, but these young Frenchmen carry off the dark suit jacket and skinny jeans with a chic touch that most English blokes can only dream of. Nichols says: “France took some time to leap on to this indie-rock thing. We're always six months or a year behind. But then, of course, Paris is a very fashion-orientated place so when fashion started going into rock'n'roll, suddenly Paris was like, ooh, rock'n'roll!” The band decided to open their own venue, Bar Three. “Soon we were getting sent so many demos we didn't know what to do with them,” Devay says. “We realised there were now a lot of French indie-rock bands, really cool but with nowhere to play.” Now there are several other packed venues - the Pop In has long attracted fashionable young musos, but La Flèche d'Or has become the place to go. Nouveau Casino, Le Grand Boulevard, Le Truskel and Showcase are all thriving venues, too.

London, though, still holds a huge appeal, which is why the Institute of Contemporary Arts has teamed up with the Palais de Tokyo in Paris to hold a series of twin concerts called Stage of the Art. Each month a French act will play London and a British musician will return the favour in Paris - in conjunction with Eurostar, fans can buy a ticket to Channel-hop to both events. This month Paris delivers Gonzales to the UK. He says the Paris scene is all very well, but that the emphasis on style can inhibit real talent. “Some kids start a band and within months they are playing at the launch party for a magazine. In other cities you have to work harder. But in Paris,” he notes wryly, “it's all about the execution - and I don't mean the guillotine.”

So there's the advice for upcoming Parisian bands - your city might be in a state of revolution, but try not to lose your heads.

Sébastien Tellier plays Scala, London N1 (www.scala-london. co.uk 020-7833 2022), Apr 28. Stage of the Art with Gonzales is at the ICA,

London E1 (www.ica.org.uk 020-7930 3647), Apr 28

The cool sound of France

Plastiscines

An all-female teenage rock band who met at a Libertines gig in Paris, they get teased for being “Bobo” - from bourgeois bohemian families. Hear them on the compilation album Paris Calling, out in UK record shops now.

Fancy

This multiracial Parisian glam-rock band is growing in notoriety - not always from their own doing. The guitarist Mohamed Yamani was refused entry into the US because he shares his name with a dead al-Qaeda operative. Listen to their infectious bonkers racket at myspace.com/welovefancy

Nessbeal

He describes himself as an illiterate tower block poet, but Nessbeal's use of the French language is masterful - French hip-hop monthly Rap Mag describes his hard-hitting rap about la réalité française as “bleeding poetry”. To see other French hip-hop artists got to www.booska-p.com

Poni Hoax

A five-man army of bookworm musicians who intone about antibodies and Budapest, Poni Hoax appear at the ICA in London on April 28 and the “Eurocultured Festival” in Manchester on May 25. www.myspace.com/ponihoax

Brooklyn

This very English-sounding outfit have high hopes of breaking the British market with an album, Clandestine, out on June 2. myspace.com/aboutbrooklyn

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