Peacock Magazine Spring 2015

Tame the Internet.

Reclaim your network. https://stample.co

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PEACOCK PEACOCK MEDIA

6 rue Colonel Combes, Paris 75007

Volume 4.2 S PR I N G 20 1 5

E DITOR-IN- C HIEF Jordan Nadler

SENIOR EDITOR | LAYOUT EDITOR Paige Roberts MANAGING EDITOR Hilary Hinshaw CHIEF OF PHOTOGRAPHY Carenina Sánchez ONLINE EDITOR Ariana Mozafari

EDITORIAL STAFF Eleni Zafiroulis/ Amanuel Neguede/ Pierre-Jean de Chambon/ Anastasiia Yarova/ Ekaterina Vorobieva/ Gabriela Wilson/ Sofia Pentón/ Nika Yazdani

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Desiree Suhr-Perez / Stephanie Christofferson/ Kristen Leigh

CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER Stephanie Christofferson

PEACOCK MEDIA M.A. BUSINESS MANAGER Sarah Ayache M.A. DIGITAL STRATEGY Stephanie Christofferson

SPECIAL THANKS TO Lethokuhle Msimang Michelle Tessman Cyrus Gill Lucille Béfort Pelloux Lars Chinburg Carolina Nugnes Gray Baker Nico Bandou

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EDITOR’S LETTER PARLEZ-VOUS NAMASTE FREE(?)GANSIM A CHEESE INSPIRED A NEW KIND OF LIBERATION THE ART OF BIDDING BEYOND BELIEFS

-HOMEGROWN -AFFRONT NATIONAL -COMBO -ENTER THE NO-GO ZONE

THE PERCEPTION OF INK ROLLING GOURMET A Q&A WITH GASPAR NOE

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR The City of Light was momentarily dimmed as the world endured another tragedy caused by religious fanaticism.

The Charlie Hebdo and Hyper Cacher attacks stood as stark reminders of the price we must sometimes pay to live in a free nation. Small minds with big guns and the convictions of Marvel villains have replaced the enemies of our past.

The world is changing under our feet, and for those of us getting ready to make our mark, we must observe carefully to find out where, and how, to land.

After the attacks, Paris picked itself up, dusted itself off and moved forward.

This issue of Peacock is a snapshot into Paris as it stands today. There is much happening in the city -- in art, in food, in sex, in the upkeep of traditions and the challenging of ecological woes.

Under the white knuckled cloud that crept over us in January, the pulse of Paris is alive and well.

With all the craziness around us, Kristen Leigh gives us a much-needed lesson on how to take a deep breath and find Zen amidst chaotic city life.

Eleni Zafiroulis familiarizes us to the

freeganism movement whose members derive from all economic classes and counter the world’s over-consumption problems by dumpster diving. Desiree Suhr-Perez invites us to dine with her at many of the city’s food trucks.

I had a bit of an adventure, myself, and bring you with me into the city’s elite, underground échangiste clubs where an entirely different side of Paris comes to life after midnight.

Ekaterina Vorobieva takes us into Drouot, Paris’s biggest auction house, and lets us peer inside the world of relics and the many characters that take part in it.

In Beyond Beliefs, Amanuel Neguede and Gabriela Wilson drive through the night to Nimes in southern France and report on the distraught family of a Muslim youth who ran away to ISIS. Confused, disappointed and scared for their son, parents are reeling over how their children could have become so lost. Pierre-Jean de Chambon writes an in-depth op-ed about the frustrations and anxiety many Muslims in Paris feel about their futures here. Anastasiia

Yarova examines the challenges immigrants of all cultures are up against as right-wing conservative parties like the Front National gain traction in the French political arena.

Last but not least, Ariana Mozafari explores the ever-changing culture of tattoos in Paris. From the artists to the unexpected tattoo-ees, tattoos are not just for the military, the rebellious or your sibling who is taking time off from life to concentrate on his art right now. Doctors, lawyers and teachers are beginning to embrace tattoos as the public hints at warming to the perception of ink.

Paris is having a moment. As spring arrives and we all remember the sky has color, this issue of Peacock unveils the many layers of our beautiful city.

Jordan Nadler Edtor-in-Chief

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Sirens blare, the metro at La Motte-Picquet-Grenelle is delayed and the queue at your preferred boulange-

By Kristen Leigh. Photography by Carenina Sanchez.

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Parlez-VOus namaste?

Inhale, Exhale, Let go: Obtaining Zen is simpler than it seems. I offer an anecdote to help find silence and clarity in a city that sometimes feels to only reflect the opposite. It begins by taking a deep breath. Breathing deep detoxifies, releases toxins, and calms the body instantaneously. Your body is designed to release 70 percent of its toxins through breathing. If you are not breathing effectively, you are not properly ridding your body of its toxins, which leads to a low immune system and potential illness. Think of how you feel when stressed, overwhelmed, or tense. Your breathing constricts. In anxious moments throughout your day take a deep breath, and with each exhale focus on stress or tension leaving your body. Listen to your breathing, like a wave rolling into shore and flowing back. You are timeless and at peace. As Eckhart Tolle writes, “Realize deeply that the present moment is all you ever have.”

Slow down and Shift your Perspective: Hurried, you glide down Rue Saint-Dominique, caught behind an elderly couple who might as well be walking backwards. Smoke from the husband’s cigar clouds your face as you check your iPhone, counting how many minutes late you’ll arrive to class. A habitual reaction to such a scenario includes anxiety and mentally honing in on the negative. Imagine instead fully letting go, releasing stressful components attached to the situation. Take a deep, slow, rhythmic breath through your nose, not through your mouth. Hold this breath for three to five seconds and exhale fully. Everything in this moment becomes soothed. All it takes is a subtle shift of inward reality: you are healthy and mobile, you have the ability to walk much faster than the couple in front of you. Because of your breathing, your perspective is no longer where you’re going, but being where you are. By taking deep breaths, not only have you fully embraced the beauty of your surroundings, but you will arrive to your destination calm instead of wracked with nerves.

It may not occur in the 7th arrondissement, and your pet peeve may not be smoke, but in flittering around Paris where the Métro’s odor is less than desirable and dog owners have never heard of a plastic bag, we could all use a deep breath and reflection on our blessings.

One with the Elements. In truth, what can be said that Mother Nature cannot voice? I dare you to sit on grass in the Jardin des Tuileries, or wander around an exotic greenhouse at Le Jardin des Serres d’Auteuil, and not feel revived. Because sunlight is a natural source of vitamin D, it makes sense that spending more time outside would increase your vitamin D intake. Paris is a city with an emotion for nature. From magnolias to chestnut trees, earthly creation intoxicates Paris this time of year.

Each day brings a vibrant mixture of colors, and each arrondissement blooms in its own unique manner. With on-therun lifestyles that many Parisians are accustomed to, being outside offers us a break from technology, increased quality of sleep, and provides focus with a clearer mindset. Not only will the elements bring inner clarity, but you will possess higher productivity and concentration back at the office or studying for class. By shifting your perspective, cultivating gratitude, and spending time outdoors, a Zen attitude naturally manifests.

Yoga and Meditation: I have expressed how to procure peace by synchronizing the body and mind to be fully interconnected with the environment. The last and complete way to secure Zen as a Parisian, or just as a human being, is through yoga and/ or meditation. Both operate in a kindred fashion of linking breath with movement. Yoga, or deep breathing for ten minutes with your eyes closed, improves attention span and functionality of the brain, increases metabolism, fights disease, reduces aging, and generally uplifts the spirit. The City of Light is blessed with studios such as YogaYoga Paris, Le Centre de Yoga du Marais, Yoga Solidaire, Yoga Village, and the list goes on.

Yoga is referred to as moving meditation because of its profound impact on the parasympathetic division of your nervous system, which relaxes and calms the heart rate. When the focus is shifted to your healing breath, it is effortless to observe peace. From copious parks to cafés to bookstores, by indulging in my anecdote you are awake and witness Paris blossoming into a Zen wonderland. For without inner peace, outer peace is impossible, no matter where you are. Breathing deeply, counting blessings, and giving yoga or meditation a try will make all the difference in your mind and body.

How fortunate to live in dreamy Paris, one of the most stimulatingly rich places on the planet. How will you let the city’s vibration affect you?

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FREE(?)GANISM In a world inclined to waste and over-consume, the resurgence of freeganism is helping to turn discarded food into sustainable meals.

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he shadowy silhouettes rummaging in the garbage bins behind your local supermarket at night might not be mangy dogs or overfed tomcats looking for scraps of tossed-out food.

There’s a good chance they’re creatures known as Freegans.

And they are making more than a meal out of the trash.

While foraging in the rubbish for food might not seem like a healthy activity, today “freeganism” has become a bonafide social movement with its own values and message. Freegans have even given birth to a new lexicon, including familiar terms like “dumpster diving,” “binning,” and “garbage gleaning.”

The movement, which finds its early roots in San Francisco during the 1960s when counter-culture groups gave away rescued food, really took off in the 1990s as part of the anti-globalization and environmental movements.

Freeganism has since spread worldwide as people embrace new modes of living which reject the modern tenden-

cy to consume far more than they need . The freegan message is simple: We waste too much food. Freegans are the champions of waste against over-consumption.

Jonah Miles is a part-time freegan. “I’d say it’s more of hobby then a lifestyle for my family and myself,” says the 35-year-old data technician.

“We still are consumers, but there is less need to purchase new goods, and the finds contribute to lower expenses in the home in general. I’ve always tried to make use of things instead of pitching them into the unknown.”

In the United States, long considered a “wasteful nation”, roughly 40 to 50 percent of all food ready for harvest never gets eaten. Annually, that’s almost 500 pounds by every household in America, according to a study conducted by Timothy Jones at University of Arizona. France is not far behind. According to the French Agence de l’Environnement et de la Maîtrise de l’Energie, each person in France wastes about 20 kilos (44 pounds) of food annually. When you

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In the United States, long considered a “wasteful nation”, roughly 40 to 50 percent of all food ready for harvest never gets eaten.

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factor in France’s growing poor, with 8 million people living under the poverty line, it’s easy to ask: Why all this waste?

Supermarkets bear much of the responsibility for food waste. Through advertisements and promotions, they constantly encourage customers to buy more food than they need. Customer failure to understand the dates and labels on products is also to blame. Some supermarkets in France are stepping up efforts to combat waste. The supermarket chain, Intermarché, recently launched a campaign promoting grotesquely misshapen fruits and vegetables with an attractive 30 percent price discount. Within hours the campaign was an instant success: all fruits and vegetables sold out within the day and the store’s overall traffic increased.

“When you are someone who eats discarded food, it changes you as a person,” says a discreet freegan who asks to go by the initials “UF” for Undercover Freegan. A mother of ten, UF has been diving since 2011 and sees no end to her missions.

“It shames you,” she says, “you yourself will begin to hate waste and being wasteful. I began to appreciate what food is and what it means. It is nourishment, joy, and sustenance. Being a freegan is realizing that this waste that was destined for the landfills is now nourishment and a source of happiness.”

UF says she dumpster dives every day. “The dumpster smelled like a bakery one day ; baguettes, wraps, sliced bread, muffins and more baked goods. It was ridiculous. I went to the food bank and donated two huge boxes after I filled both my freezers! I woke up my son because I could no longer walk in my kitchen…

I needed help putting it all away. It was all perfectly soft bread.”

Freeganism is a broad term. Combining the words ‘free’ and ‘vegan’, “freegan” described people who salvage society’s wasted food. More committed than casual dumpster divers, freegans are making a statement not only against consumerism, but also in favor of sharing the wealth.

“I’m not so much a freegan per se, more an environmental awareness advocate,” says Miles. “I’ve been conserving and reusing much of my adult life. I’d say more and more the last decade, since Western culture has since evolved a heightened awareness in general, which has made it easier to find resources and outlets to fine tune the process of recycling, reusing, reclaiming.”

In 1977 California became the first U.S. state to introduce the legal concept of ‘limited liability’, which covers and protects those who wish to donate products to food

banks and other not-for profit agencies. Over the following decade, all forty-nine other U.S. states followed suit. In 1996, the Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act stated: “A person or gleaner shall not be subject to civil or criminal liability arising from the…condition of apparently wholesome food…that the person or gleaner donates in good faith to a nonprofit organization for ultimate distribution to needy families.” The only European country to follow the American example by enacting a “Good Samaritan” law is Italy. The Italian law, enacted in 2003, has been facilitating wasted food circulation ever since.

While many partake in dumpster diving for social and environmental reasons, some see it as the only way to make ends meet. “I live on very low income,” says Amandine, 34, a child-care assistant living just outside of Paris. “Often I find buckets of rich and varied foods -- mostly vegetables, meats, and fruits.” Amandine has been diving since 2008, after lifting the lid of a garbage can behind a florist sparked her curiosity.

“You can’t imagine what stores throw out! The best part about dumpster diving is the large quantities of goods -- I always have enough to feed myself and can share it with other families in need. That’s what really matters.”

Is dumpster diving legal in France? Dumpster divers are, technically speaking, trespassing on private property -- potentially climbing and breaking fences and gates to commit attempted theft.

However, according to France’s Waste Recovery Act, all waste is considered res nullius, Latin for “nobody’s property.” In short, trash in France belongs to no one. It is therefore legal in France to search the trash for goods.

Scavenging for the purpose of obtaining information such as credit card numbers is forbidden, but foraging in bins for late-night grub is perfectly legal.

Though many people in the growing freegan community benefit from their late night escapades, others are not very patient with them. “Some use bleach, strong smelling poison, or other detergents to deter the gleaners [from eating] their garbage,” claims the website Freegan Station. But dumpsters should no longer be stigmatized as disgusting, filthy, and crawling with diseases. “I have never seen a rodent -- ever,” says UF. “Some dumpsters are dirtier than others since some stores do not bag their trash. Four years ago, I would have thought this was the most disgusting thing ever. Today, I see no other way.” •

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Being a freegan is realizing that this waste that was destined for the landfills is now nourishment and a source of happiness.

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How To Be An American In Paris And Still Seem Like a Functioning Human Being 10 Things Every Non-Parisian Needs to Know to Survive in the City of Light. By Jordan Nadler.

1. Learn Basic French This is France. They speak French here. They will be much nicer to you if they feel like you’re aware America is not the only country in the world. Also, for whatever reason, French people find the American accent, while speaking French, very sexy. I don’t know why either. But it’s procured free drinks, dates, and even a really good wedge of cheese once. Just learn the basics. You can do it.

2. Develop The Glorious Skill of Volume Control Why did you just get that lip flutter from the table sitting next to you, you ask? Because the entire restaurant you’re sitting in now knows everything about you. You thought you were having a conversation with your friends, but in fact, 15 fellow diners are now aware of who you hooked up with last night, how much you love Scandal, and what you’re about to eat after you shouted your order at the waiter.

I understand you may not realize how loud you are speaking, and I understand we are not wired to be mysterious, and compellingly aloof like the French.

But if you are getting dirty looks from more than, let’s say 3 people, take a moment of self-reflection and assess your volume in comparison to the people around you. Your waiter might even come back with your food.

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3. Look in Mirrors Sometimes Are you currently wearing white sneakers? Do you have socks stretched up past your ankles? More mortifyingly, to your knees? Is there a fanny pack involved in any capacity with you or your party?

Does anything you’re wearing have rhinestones on it? Is there a visor blocking the sun from your face?

Are you sporting some kind of oversized shlumpy tee-shirt you bought in an airport in the Carribean 7 years ago? Are there Uggs anywhere near your feet?

If the answer is yes to any of these, please know that you are being judged by every living creature around you, including that cute dog on the corner.

You shouldn’t even be dressing like that in America.

You are representing yourself as the Coors Light of human beings. Stop it.

4. Portions.

In most places, portions are appropriated to the size of the animal eating. France is one of these places!

There is a reason your meal doesn’t consist of 6,000 calories of fried mayonnaise balls covered in onion rings covered in processed cheese and cold cuts.

There is also a reason most of our home country looks like the people from Wall-E. Slow down, enjoy your food. This isn’t prison. You can take your time.

You aren’t going into hibernation, so, yes, that six ft baguette was probably meant for more than one person.

5: Don’t Order a Gin & Tonic.

This one’s not even on you. Your bartender will inexplicably screw this up so badly that the only logical reaction is to have a nervous breakdown.

This will cause unwanted attention to be directed at you as you end up muttering incoherently to yourself, rocking back and forth in a corner, cradling the three separate glasses you were just given (one with tonic, one with a teaspoon of gin, and one with a single ice cube). You are in the country that discovered oxygen, developed the first optical telegram, created the rabies vaccine, and conquered its way into becoming one of the most expansive colonial empires to ever exist. But the Gin & Tonic evades them.

6: As Far As You’re Concerned, Segways Do Not Exist.

This isn’t Disney World. You are not visiting your grandmother at her nursing home in Sarasota. You are in one of the most beautiful cities on the planet. This is the birthplace of Gothic Art, and where Coco Chanel designed the first Little Black Dress. Do not be one of the 20 Americans on, what can only be explained as land-drones, zooming past Les Invalides yelling “WOO-EE!!” as you follow a man with a flag attached to his hat. Please…just don’t.

7. Yes, he is flirting with you.

8. No, she is not flirting with you 9. Make Normal Human Being Decisions Just in case you’re that guy I saw on Avenue Duquesne last week, no, the shrubs in front of hotels are not ‘Herbs de Provence” so, no, Jesus Christ, don’t pick them and put them in your mouth.

10. LADIES,

“Je Suis Bonne” Does Not Mean “I’m Good” (You Really, Really Need To Remember This.)

“I’m good”, an appropriate answer to 70% of questions asked in America, is not. directly. translatable. “How are you?” “I’m good.” “You hungry?” “I’m good.” “Wanna go see that new Adam Sandler movie?” “Nah, I’m good.”

If someone asks you anything and you reply with “Je suis bonne” you’ve just told them that you are incredibly sexually attractive.

You’re already a woman. In France. You don’t need anything else to encourage PePe Le Pew’s advances. “Je vais bien” or “Ça va” are what you are trying to say. For your own sakes, don’t forget.•

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A Cheese Inspired ComtĂŠ cheese is synonymous with quality, heritage and taste. With a narrative too rich to be limited to a singular brand, we explore the history and creation of this famous cheese.

Written and photographed by Stephanie Christofferson.

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omté is not a brand,” says Aurélia Chimier, communications director for one of France’s most successful cheeses. “Comté is a heritage.”

With nearly 60,000 tons sold in France annually, and an additional 5,000 tons exported, comté is big business. In today’s consumption-saturated world where everything from toothpicks to car rides are increasingly manipulated by various branding techniques, this particular rhetoric of “heritage” seems counterintuitive, even shortsighted. But in truth, comté doesn’t need to be branded. Its quality, heritage, and plain good taste stand up to any competitor’s strategically crafted brand narrative.

The secret of Comté’s success is much more than simple taste. How can all 60,000 tons of it taste that

good? And what even makes it that delicious in the first place? The answer can be summed up in two key concepts, known and loved in France but often misunderstood by outsiders: terroir, and appellation d’origine protegée (AOP). For the uninitiated, terroir is a uniquely difficult French word to translate into English, but it generally encapsulates the idea that the particularities of the land (geography, weather, flora and fauna, mineral and chemical makeup of the soil) influence an element of taste present in all agricultural products from that place. Terroir is a way of anchoring taste to a certain place, and tying land to culture. AOP is a regulatory system overseen by a French governmental body that designates certain products (wines, cheeses, etc.) as “heritage” items due to a variety of qualifica-

tions (quality, history, specificity) and provides standards or rules for the production and quality of each product. Ultimately, AOP is guided by the concept of terroir in an attempt to protect and promote products that exemplify a connection to a particular place and the people who live there.

So what does this mean for comté?

To understand this special cheese, one must look to its origins in the Jura region straddling the French-Swiss border. A region of some 1,930 square miles ranging from 700 to 3,900 feet in elevation, the Jura is home to a wide array of diverse ecologies and climates. Water from the Alps carves through limestone in a network of mineral-rich streams and waterfalls, irrigating the valleys below. With its rolling green pastures, pine-dotted plateaus, and moss-carpeted forests,

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the Jura seems like a fairy tale of forms that will eventually harden into demand, while artisanship is employed the French countryside. But life is 80-pound wheels of Comté. This young to maintain taste and honor tradition. hard here. Harsh, cold winters and comté, Tas explains, is “like a naked The system is one that would not be distance from urban centers have baby after birth...it needs clothes!” possible without the AOP regulations induced a slow depopulation over This “clothing” will come in the form and without the thousand-year history the last century. The people that of a salt wash painted on the “baby” behind Comté cheese. remain are mostly older, or work wheel to form the natural rind.

But how can you regulate taste? directly on the land in agricultural Once the wheel is stable enough, it How can you really judge whether a production. Without Comté and is sent to one of the 15 aging facilities specific wheel of cheese meets a certain the success of other AOP products, or affineurs where it must ripen for a standard? This is where comté diverges the Jura region would be even more minimum of four months before it can from every other AOP product, and deserted and forgotten, maybe even be sold. This carefully calibrated chain might be the driving force behind its subject to a massive redevelopment of production is made up of links that widespread success and renown. In project. A region kept alive by cheese specialize in each individual part of the response to the problem of taste reg-- that’s a powerful concept. Without cheese-making process. Any romantic ulation, a “Taste Jury” was formed to the Jura region, comté cannot exist; notions of a red-cheeked middle-aged judge each Comté cheese on the basis without Comté, the Jura would not Frenchman milking his cows by hand of an “aroma wheel,” on which various persevere as it does. The fact that and then toiling over a hand-stirred tastes and smells found in Comté are Comté can be made nowhere else vat in a stone cave are nice, but in- mapped. Each wheel of Comté scores is just one of the many regulations herently false. This nostalgic image of on a scale of 20 points, ten for taste leveled by its AOP status. and ten for appearance.

So how is comté produced?

A score of 14 or above T Jean-Francois Marmier, awards the wheel a green who goes by the nickname sticker; below 14 the stickTHE ENDLESS DIVERSITY IN COMTÉ IS WHAT MAKES Tas, is a fifth-generation er is brown; 9 or below dairy farmer who passionmeans that the Comté is EATING IT SUCH A JOY - UNDERNEATH ately shares his love for the in fact not quality enough cheese-making process. THE SAME CHEESE IS A WORLD OF VARIETY TO to call itself Comté, and It starts with the cows -must be sold as shredded DISCOVER; NO TWO COMTÉ ARE THE SAME. Montbéliard cows, to be cheese or on pre-packspecific -- the only type aged frozen foods. To of cow whose milk is apattest to comté’s success proved for Comté producrate in maintaining high tion. What’s more, each individual artisanal French cheese may be what quality, 85 percent is sold under the cow must be treated impeccably goes through the minds of many as green label, 10 percent with a brown well, given one hectare of pasture to they bite into Comté, but the reality one, and only 5 percent is relegated roam and fed only grass. The cows is a very advanced system aided by to non-Comté status. are milked twice a day on each of modern technology and guided by Let’s return to the 15 affineurs, or the approximately 2,500 farms in the artisanal traditions. Some elements of aging facilities, that house Comté. For region. The raw milk is then driven to the romantic cheese-maker remain: the 65,000+ tons that are consumed one of the 150 cheese-making facili- he must feel each batch by hand to each year, that’s a lot of cheese to ties, or fruitières, where it is weighed ensure correct temperature and tex- house for a relatively low number of and poured into copper-lined vats. ture; the farmer must take his cows facilities. This means that each facility When using raw milk, Tas remarks out to pasture and milk them each must be efficient and large, a difficult that “it is very easy to work clean day. But there are vats with automatic feat when you must closely look after today,” noting that this aspect of machinery to stir the milk into curd; each wheel of Comté to ensure qualcomté is set in the rules. Pasteurized milking machines applied to each ity, turning it and applying more salt milk is safe, but it is “dead” – all udder; robots to turn and transport wash each week. The impressive feat of bacteria, good and bad, are killed. By the heavy wheels of cheese. these industrial warehouse-style aging working clean and valuing quality, The facilities are sanitary, almost facilities is the mastery of modern pasteurization is not necessary to industrial, because above all they technology juxtaposed with human make wonderful, delicious cheese. must be functional. It is this balance craftsmanship, a theme characteristic Through a careful process delicately of human and machine, industrial of Comté itself. balanced between human touch and and artisanal that keeps comté proUsing the latest technology (rohigh-tech machinery, the raw milk ducing a mass amount of high-quality bots, computer programs to regulate is coaxed into curd and packed into cheese. Technology is used to meet temperature and humidity) the “chef

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A COMTÉ THAT IS PARTICULARLY WHITE MEANS THAT COWS WERE EATING DRIED GRASS DUE TO WINTER. IT WILL TASTE DECIDEDLY DIFFERENT FROM A DEEP YELLOW COMTÉ, WHICH MEANS COWS WERE EATING GRASS AND FLOWERS DURING THE SUMMER.

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de cave” and his staff look after up to 200,000 wheels of Comté and other cheeses of the region. Random checks by members of the AOP and comté regulatory bodies ensure that all standards are met and rules are followed.

The affineurs are responsible for selling comté cheese to distributors and retailers to restaurants, cheese shops, and supermarkets - which means that no matter where you buy Comté, it is of the same high quality. The goal in regulating Comté was to build the cheese’s reputation as a whole cheese, not as an individual producer or brand.

In fact, when you buy Comté, you will notice that there is usually no mention of the affineur or cheese maker on the cheese.

This goes back to Aurélia Chimier’s assertion that Comté is in fact not a brand. Brands may buy Comté cheese and sell it under their name, but there is just one cheese with a catalog of endless variations and tastes, all meeting the same high standard for quality and production. The separation of each part in the process and subsequent need to work together economically

integrates each part of the chain; the farmer is motivated to produce the best quality milk, or the cheese makers won’t buy it; the cheese maker is motivated to produce the best quality young cheese, or the agers will not buy it. It’s a genius method of pooling resources, delegating tasks, and collectively engaging in a mutually beneficial process: making amazing cheese. But just because Comté is considered a heritage cheese, regardless of its maker, does not mean that all Comtés taste the same.

A variety of factors influence taste, from specific production techniques and practices that vary slightly among cheese makers and agers, to natural influences such as season, pasture location, and weather. A Comté that is particularly white means that cows were eating dried grass due to winter.

It will taste decidedly different from a deep yellow comté, which means cows were eating grass and flowers during the summer. An older Comté might have crystals and crumble easier than a younger one, which will be soft and creamier.

Flavors range from nutty to fruity, from animal to vegetable, from earthy to floral. The endless diversity in comté is what makes eating it such a joy - underneath the same cheese is a world of variety to discover; no two Comté are the same.

Inherent to this diversity, and congruent with the practice of not distinguishing between makers, is the idea that there is no true hierarchy of Comté taste. The producers and administrators involved in the making and marketing of Comté all insist: “there is no “better,” there is just different.” Comté, they claim, is a cheese that can fit the variety of each person’s individual tastes.

As Aurelia says, “There is a Comté out there for everyone.” While many believe that aged Comté is superior due to its high cost, this is simply not true; the cost is higher because it really does cost more to house a cheese for longer. There is no reason why an aged cheese should be superior to a young one. The only way to find out which comté is the best comté is to find out for yourself. The search is endless, so taste, and keep tasting. •

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PLAY

VICE Paris has a sexy secret. Explore the underground lifestyle where more is more.

Written by Jordan Nadler. Photography by Carenina Sanchez.

T

he silverware on the table rattled as a text buzzed across my phone.“Here! Red coat, long hair.”

I took a deep breath, got up from my table at the back of Hippopotamus in Place du Ternes and wound my way through the busy restaurant. I found her standing by the door. A beautiful brunette in a red coat, with lips painted just as bright, and pursed in that way that signals you are looking at a Parisian woman. We made eye contact and she nodded, pressing her lips further into a small smile of acknowledgement.

I had purposefully chosen a table as far away from the main crowd as possible.

As we moved through the restaurant, heads turned as gazes fastened on my lunch guest. At 57 years old, she has maintained a poise and elegance women thirty years younger envy.

When we reached the table, she removed her red coat, revealing a form-fitting dress that stopped above her knees. She’s not exceptionally tall, but her legs are long and toned, and were tucked nicely into a pair of red, high-heeled cowboy boots (an initial

suggestion that this was not your average lady-who-lunches.) We small-talked for a while, discussing the people we knew in common and the fact that it never stops raining in Paris. I was wondering how to bring up the subject we had come here discuss, when the waiter arrived to take our order.

“La salade du chef,” she said promptly. “Et – do you like rosé?” she asked without looking up from the menu.

“I – yes,” I replied.

“Et une carafe du Côtes de Provence,” she told the waiter. I glanced at my phone. It was half past noon.

“I am a French woman, after all,” she said. She handed the menu back to the waiter and he left. I waited a moment and began.

“So tell me, Clara, how did you come to be the leading lady of the Libertines?”

And so began a series of stories that unlocked a secret door into a lascivious Paris most people can’t imagine.

Clara Basteh belongs to Paris’ underground culture of elite swingers (or échangistes), a discreet underworld

of sexual debauchery that captured sensationalist headlines recently when France’s former finance minister -- and presidential candidate -- Dominique Strauss-Kahn was charged with pimping and prostitution. The word libertine requires some definition, as it doesn’t strike the French sensibility in the way it might shock in Anglo-American culture. If you search for a strict dictionary definition of libertine, you might come across this one: “One devoid of most moral restraints, which are seen as unnecessary or undesirable, especially one who ignores or even spurns accepted morals and forms of behavior sanctified by the larger society.”

Libertines are not amoral creatures who run rampant through the streets.

They simply function by a different code of what society deems “normal” sexual behavior. In France -- if the stereotypes are accurate -- the culture is relatively indulgent towards libertinage.

When Dominique Strauss-Kahn was eventually acquitted in French courts for his sexual depravity, few in France were outraged.

“Here the Roman Catholic church

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is dominant,” says Basteh. “It is more WASPS in your country (America).

Protestants are stricter regarding marriage methods. That’s why they split from Roman Catholicism...because even in the 16th century there was too much libertinage. Even priests would have mistresses. The Pope would have children. WASPs wanted to get back to strict religion and be less vulgar.”

Basteh threw herself into the Parisian libertine culture relatively late in life. A Sorbonne graduate who had become an accomplished writer and poet, she and her now ex-husband began writing erotic stories and posting them online about a decade ago.

When a publisher asked her to write an erotic roman, she began looking into the secret playgrounds of Paris’ échangistes. Her first erotic novel,

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Itinéraire d’une Scandaleuse, appeared in 2007. While she was researching the novel, she and her husband started to attend private parties and frequent libertine clubs. It didn’t take long before they were totally immersed in the lifestyle.

“My husband and I started to be a libertine couple because, after ten years of marriage and a six-year-old boy, we tired of a traditional relationship,” she says. “That’s how we got into this world and started meeting people -- and of course started writing about it.”

Libertines are not solely échangistes.

There are voyeurs -- men and women who like watching others have sex.

There are also candaulistes, like Basteh’s ex-husband -- men who seek sexual pleasure by undressing and revealing their female partner to strangers and

then watching her engage in sexual acts with them. Some libertines are attracted to sex clubs simply because they like the environment. They enjoy being able to take off their clothes and walk around naked; or remain fully clothed and have a drink with their friends, taking comfort in the knowledge that they are in a place free of moral judgment and reproach.

“You won’t believe me, but you are more peaceful in a libertine club than in a normal club,” says Basteh.

“People in libertine clubs just don’t mind. You can strip, whatever -- do what you want.”

The libertine movement stretches back to the 16th century, but gained notoriety in the 18th century through the Marquis de Sade (the father of Sadism) and later with the legendary

maisons closes in the French capital.

The Marquis de Sade has left us a rich literary legacy of sexual depravity.

The infamous French aristocrat -- a novelist, playwright and professional prisoner -- shared with the entire world his perverse sexual appetite and propensity for blasphemous foreplay.

His first arrest came after he forced a prostitute to incorporate crucifixes into their sexual acts. Years later, on Easter Sunday in 1768, the Marquis beckoned a chambermaid into his bedroom where he proceeded to cut her flesh and pour hot wax into her wounds for the remainder of the evening. As British author Jason Farago noted in an article titled “Who’s Afraid of the Marquis de Sade?”: “Even his best novel, Justine, featuring a libertine priest defiling a girl with a stra-

tegically inserted communion wafer, scandalized French society not for any pornographic excess, but for its pitch-black moral vision -- in which abusing other humans is not just acceptable but positively virtuous. True morality, for Sade, entailed following your darkest and most destructive passions to their farthest possible ends, even at the expense of other human life. (The whips are for beginners: Sade had no particular problem with murder, though he was an unsparing opponent of the death penalty. To kill a man in passion was one thing, but to rationalize killing by law was barbarous.)”

In the 19th century, princes and crowned heads of Europe came to Paris for erotic assignations in discreet and exclusive clubs such as Le Chabanais.

Queen Victoria’s eldest son Bertie -later King Edward VII -- frequented Le Chabanais so often that his coat-ofarms hung over his favorite bed and he had his own “love seat” specially built to facilitate lascivious access to his regal private parts.

Today’s French libertines may be removed from aristocratic depravities of the past, but the tradition continues unembarrassed. France is home to nearly 500 libertine clubs, most of them in Paris. The City of Light has long been the capital of sexual indiscretion.

But while legendary sex clubs like Le Chabanais and the One-Two-Two have long vanished, the libertine tradition continues in Paris at establishments bearing different names, such as Les Chandelles and Le Mask. They cater to an exclusive clientele with a taste for

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elegant depravity. If you’re looking for ples and single women. “Humans are In France, libertines are not emBDSM and latex body suits, go to Berlin. animals,” says Pierre, “and sex is sex.” barrassed to show their faces in these If you prefer to swill champagne and Despite their libertine lifestyle, they establishments. In French culture, a smoke cigarettes in close proximity to claim to be unswervingly “faithful” person’s -- especially a man’s -- sex life dimly lit dens reserved for the ultimate to each other. “We love each other,” is seen as his business; he has the right dolce vita, Paris is your city. says Pierre. “And we like to include to privacy even if he is cheating on his “Libertines are mostly in big cit- other people in our bed.” wife in the comfort of his own privacy. ies because you shouldn’t meet your The difference between libertines A popular Paris libertine club is Le neighbors, or your working partners or, and people who cheat, argues Pierre, Mask in the 2nd arrondissement. It you know, people from your children’s is that “libertines acknowledge this caters exclusively to couples -- except on school,” says Basteh. “You don’t know fact together, and act on it together.” Mondays and afternoons when singles libertines at day time, just at night.”

The “modern” version of libertine are admitted. “It’s a bit of a different Today’s libertines are not sadists à la clubs with clients like Pierre and his crowd,” says the club’s owner Sophie Marquis de Sade. They do, however, wife started gaining popularity during Levy about the afternoon clientele. She share his rejection of society’s idea the sixties when sexual morals were likens them to people who visit strip of “acceptable” sexual behavior. They opening up and people began to pub- clubs in the middle of the day. “One march to the beat of their own libidi- lically own their sexuality. Before then, wonders why they are not at work,” nous drum. They are libertines because Paris sex clubs still mainly catered to she says. Le Mask’s market niche is their sexuality knows no bounds, and the rich, serving as discreet locations échangistes. Unlike at private parties in their guiltlessness grows with every for high-society romps, far from the wealthy people’s homes where women pink-lit binge. city’s sordid brothels and maisons de show up on their own, at Le Mask and The “bedroom” preferences of lib- passe that have come down to us in other upscale Libertine clubs, only ertines differ from person to person the paintings of Toulouse-Lautrec. couples are admitted. and couple to couple, just as Levy says sex clubs are in traditional relationships. the safest places for liber.

Some libertine couples enjoy tines, even safer than prihaving sex with each other in vate parties, because there IF YOU’RE LOOKING FOR BDSM AND LATEX BODY the company of other people. are bouncers and security SUITS, GO TO BERLIN. IF YOU PREFER TO SWILL Others like to intertwine with guards. “There is a level of other couples. Still others CHAMPAGNE AND SMOKE CIGARETTES IN CLOSE respect, a mutual underlike to swap spouses. Some PROXIMITY TO DIMLY LIT DENS RESERVED FOR THE standing,” she says. “There ULTIMATE DOLCE VITA, PARIS IS YOUR CITY. men take the wives of their are no men coming up to friends; some women take women with unwanted adtheir friends’ husbands. There vances.” are those who like like to be There is no obligation to made love to, and those who engage in sexual acts at prefer a more -- zealous -- approach. Until the 1960s, sex clubs were pri- libertine clubs. Voyeurism is a large Some older women take younger men; marily a man’s world being serviced component of the lifestyle. That is some older men take younger women. by women offering tariffed sex. Today, why, in many sex clubs, the main areas All have one thing in common: they men arrive at libertine clubs with their resemble chic bars or swanky lounges. are completely free from boundaries wives.

Sexual acts usually take place in cushand expectations. There are no rules, “When I was a teenager in the sev- ioned side rooms and alcoves; or, if a but there is equally no vulgarity. It’s enties, we had free sex. There was no couple is feeling especially conservative, swinging for the civilized.

AIDS, we were free,” says Clara Basteh. in the privacy of a public bathroom.

Typical of a modern libertine couple “Okay, we used to catch things, but When you walk by Le Mask on the is Pierre and his wife. I “met” Pierre – nothing serious.” street, nothing visible indicates what not his real name -- on Libertchat, an Although it might seem like a con- happens inside on innocuous Rue online forum for libertine news, an- tradiction, given the furtive nature of Feydeau, except perhaps for the abrupt nouncements, evenings, games, and chat libertine establishments, the libertine end to burnished Haussmannian farooms. The site facilitates the loosening culture offers a social life for some. cades and the sudden appearance of of sexual curiosities and, eventually, if Like most bars or clubs, sex clubs have dark windowless panels. The same one so desires, the acting out of adven- regulars. “It’s always the same people,” goes for Les Chandelles in the 1st arturous sexual lifestyles.Pierre and his says Basteh, who has come across DSK rondissement. There are no neon signs wife, who married in their late thirties, at least twice at Les Chandelles. The flashing, nothing showing the club’s have integrated acceptance of sexual difference is that libertine regulars name. Everything is discreet. Except non-exclusivity into their marriage. tend to sleep with each other before for a valet sign in the cobblestoned They use Libertchat to meet other cou- the night is through.

Rue Thérèse.

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Most libertine clubs in Paris enforce be. We saw a myriad of couplings (or fabric is vinyl. Liquid resistant. There similar sartorial guidelines. Men must triplings) going on next to each other. are large boxes of tissues in shiny black wear suits or, at the very least, dark pants Women on women. Men on women. plastic holders next to each one. Once and a jacket. Women must wear a dress In one distinct corner, men on woman. settled in, it is almost possible to forget or skirt and heels. Les Chandelles is (We did not see any men on men.) you are in a sex club as you drink and known to be the most chic and exclusive Yet it didn’t feel like an out-of-control make conversation. Then something of Parisian libertine clubs. Its website sex party. It felt more like a group of happens. A naked couple emerges from goes so far as to recommend prospective people with similar secrets who found around a corner and vanishes behind a female guests be “unsettlingly beautiful”. each other, and this was their esoter- semi-opaque glass wall in a bathroom Men do best when they look like they ic clubhouse. Besides the occasional where their silhouettes begin to fuse have a lot of money. There is a wide strip pole, there is almost a feeling of together into different shapes. range of ages at libertine clubs -- from timelessness.

The downstairs of Le Mask is where people in their twenties to couples well The place is big enough that you you can see a contrast between the into middle-age. And then, of course, don’t have to be close to the sex rooms chic-ness of Les Chandelles and the there are the older men who arrive with if you don’t want to be. There are nar- ambiance of some of the other libertine their long-limbed “associates”. row staircases that lead into what look establishments in Paris. Going down the I checked out Les Chandelles with like fancy living rooms where people stairs, the walls are covered by stretchy three male friends and two female are allowed to smoke (libertine club black fabric adorned with large plasfriends. Perhaps it was because we patrons, mindful of discretion, do not tic-looking rhinestones. At the bottom were on the younger side of their usual go outside for a cigarette). of the stairs is a tiny dance floor with clientele (we are all in our mid to late Getting into Le Mask is a bit more a disco ball a strip pole. The back wall twenties) that we got in quite easily. theatrical. When you arrive at the door, is a mirror. Next to the dance floor is Once you get past the bouncer you you encounter a stern-looking bouncer a series of rooms where heaps of body find yourself in an opulent move around in the dark. For cloakroom. Everyone must whatever reason, the scent of . hand over their coats, wallets, beautifully fragrant essential cell phones and anything else oils permeates the air, making they have on their person. One “WE LOVE EACH OTHER,” SAYS PIERRE. it smell like you are at a spa. of my girlfriends was even Clara Basteh confesses she “AND WE LIKE TO INCLUDE OTHER sometimes finds it hard to instructed to remove her sheer blazer. You then receive a card have left the lifestyle. “I found PEOPLE IN OUR BED.” on which the bartender will it difficult to stop because I’m record your drink purchases. used to living like that,” she On Saturday nights the entry says, “but I want to be involved fee for a couple is €88, which in a relationship and I have to includes the mandatory cloakroom and who can deny entrance to anyone who accept that most men are not libertine.” two drinks. Under no circumstance does not meet the dress code. After the Basteh and her husband divorced a few can you keep any form of money on bouncer gives you the nod, he radios years ago, and she acknowledges their you -- a rule imposed to eliminate any in to someone inside. A big black door lifestyle was to blame. “I got used to suspicion of prostitution. opens and a man dressed in black pants, better lovers,” she admits with a smile Les Chandelles was temporarily shut a tight white collared shirt, black sus- and a shrug. She has since started down in 2011 following an investiga- penders, and a long-nosed Mardi Gras dating a man who has no interest in tion into alleged prostitution (albeit mask comes out and ushers you into taking part in the libertine world. “We high-class alleged prostitution) on its the bar. People are sitting on chairs, will see what happens,” she says. “I love premises. The ex-footballer Alim Ben drinking cocktails and laughing. A him, and I would never do anything to Mabrouk was arrested with two other lit-up display of liquor bottles, adorned ruin our relationship. But I do miss it.” people on suspicion of carrying out with a collection of whips, crops and I don’t know what I expected to find “highly organized pimping” at the club. feather ticklers dangling from a leather when I started digging into the world Needless to say, it re-opened, but with bucket, illuminates a black wall. Deep- of Paris’s libertines, but I discovered strict precautions. er into the room, the bar transforms there are two worlds that exist in the Les Chandelles is a labyrinth; a cav- into a lounge. At first glance the area City of Light; one above ground, and ernous pink-lit stone world where is elegantly put together. The lights one clandestinely below. Though the you can find yourself in tucked away give off a dim red glow and there is libertine world will never make itself rooms with plush couches and beauti- a candle on every table. The couches known to you, if you look hard enough, ful chandeliers, or darkly lit chambers are wider than at most lounges. People you may very well find a secret entrance where ten to twenty people are doing are meant to get comfortable on them of your own.• their thing -- whatever that thing may -- as comfortable as they want. The

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The Art of Bidding With a product range of Monet paintings to Fabergé eggs and personal possessions of King Louis-Philippe, Drouot stands as one of the most culturally iconic auction houses in the world.

By Ekaterina Vorobieva

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he heavy door of room 9 at the famous Drouot auction house opens suddenly, an impeccably dressed middle-aged gentleman in a pink bowtie exits rapidly and cuts through the throng assembled in the hallway. Making a quick gesture with one hand to touch his silver hair, he sweeps past in a flash -- so quickly that you almost miss the round glasses perched on his nose and the cucumber-shaped motifs on his jaunty bowtie. He vanishes behind another door that reads, “privé”. Do not enter.

Ten minutes later, a much younger man emerges from the big doors of room 9 dressed in a white shirt, red necktie and a long black apron emblazoned with the Drouot logo. He betrays a vague smile as he watches the motley crowd -- Asian tourists, old ladies, men in raincoats and sneakers, backpackers -- rush past him to enter the auction room and hurriedly take their places in the rows of black plastic chairs.

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The ambiance in room 9, with its red velour walls, evokes the glorious past of France’s legendary auction house. Glass encasements display antique and more recent objets d’art for curious and mesmerized gazes.

Rows of shelves are crowded with collections of old books. Some of these objects will soon be auctioned off for no more than one hundred euros. Today an auction firm called Eve is holding the hammer.

“There is no place like Drouot,” says Catherine Delvaux, head of communications at the famed auction house.

“It’s the biggest in Paris, the biggest in France, and in a way, the world. It’s a unique place.”

Located in the ninth arrondissement Grands Boulevards district of Paris, Drouot has sixteen different auction rooms in which all manner of items -- from sacred relics and historical treasures to wine collections and assorted bric-a-brac -- go under the hammer of the 74 different auctioneers. Today an expansive mélange

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comes through these doors -- objects and curios from civilizations as vastly different as the Eskimo culture and the Roman Empire.

A murmured hum pervades the room as the audience settles into their chairs along the back wall, filling up corners, waiting for the afternoon spectacle to begin.

Suddenly, the room is silenced by the bang of a little wooden hammer in the experienced hands of 60-yearold Alain Leroy, the gentleman sporting the pink bowtie.

Leroy, surrounded by five brokers -- each connected to an electronic device -- presides at a tall table located on a platform in the center of the room. “S’il vous plaît, Mesdames et Messieurs,” he calls out, tapping his hammer three times. And then he repeats, more commandingly, “S’il vous plaît!” For the next five hours Leroy will auction off a wide array of items -- from art and jewelry to pottery and personal objects.

The room is buzzing when bidding begins. Asian, French, Russian and modern art is dispatched in a matter of minutes. One of the first lots is a collection of seven posters from Yves Saint Laurent’s personal possessions, sold for €1,600. Six different-sized paintings of nude women go under the hammer for double their starting price. The most expensive item today is a medium-sized acrylic painting of a couple in a garden (early 20th century) – sold for €6,700. Two mysterious clients dispute the painting via their brokers on telephones before one finally desists and stops bidding. Buying coveted items at auction is a game of nerves -- and money. Catherine Delvaux says prices depend on the rarity and value of the object. A small photograph will sometimes fetch more than a big sofa. “It is its history, quality and age that define the item’s price,” she says.

It is now after lunch, and bidders are coming and going in room 9. At the podium Leroy discretely opens a bag of Haribo jellies. His assistant, a crier carrying a folder and a phone, keeps his eyes on the audience as he extends an arm to Leroy, opening his palm to request a jelly. At the back of the room, a small elderly lady takes a seat in the back row and, kicking off her shoes with a loud sigh, opens a bag of peanuts. She’s just in time to witness an old man in a brimmed hat, wearing a long black coat, bid successfully for a small golden bowl (price: €40) and depart as quietly as he entered fifteen minutes before. The intricate commercial ballet of bidding and

buying continues all afternoon.

“Each day Drouot opens its doors to about 5,000 merely curious, and between 500 and 1,000 actual buyers,” says Delvaux. Every day, she adds, something new and unexpected happens due to its “great vitality and rapid rhythm.”

Modern French auction houses stretch back to 1801, when Napoleon authorized 80 commissaires-priseurs (auctioneers) to conduct business. The term commissaires-priseurs is much older, dating back to 1713, though historically auctions were often held in the private residence of the seller. By the mid-19th century, Paris had emerged as an international cultural capital and art marketplace. The Drouot auction house was founded in 1852, at the outset of the Second Empire -- a period of extravagance and opulence.

In its first year, the personal possessions of French King, Louis-Philippe -- who was overthrown in 1848 -- went up for auction. In the late 1870s art collectors were coming to Drouot to bid on the first Impressionist paintings of Claude Monet, Edouard Manet, Alfred Sisley and Berthe Morisot.

Today, Drouot does not sell directly. Each auction firm is in charge of its own sales. Auctioneers, a regulated profession in France, are Drouot shareholders. The auction house belongs to them.

Auctioneers stand between the seller and the buyer, and keep a percentage of the sale -- a subject that remains strictly confidential. Drouot sells over 1,000 objects a day -- as many as 400 items in a single auction. The house sells more than 500,000 items a year.

Catherine Delvaux describes Drouot as a “democratic place,” in contrast to more rarefied houses such as Sotheby’s and Christie’s. At Drouot, anyone can come in, look at the objects for sale, join the bidding, or just watch as curious spectators. There is no obligation to register officially or provide professional credentials.

“Every nationality and every age can be represented at Drouot, from France and abroad,” says Delvaux, adding that the emergence of international buyers is a more recent phenomenon.

About half of Drouot’s buyers are professionals, says Delvaux, most of them looking for things such as Asian art, jewelry, exclusive accessories and wine. “Younger people are now less interested in old objects because tastes change extremely quickly,” she says. Buyers look at what came later and is cheaper.

“Art is a market,” she says, “and it follows the money.”

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Sometimes you meet an item and you realize you’ve never seen anything like that before.

[It]speaks to you.

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Which is why Drouot is attracting so many international buyers. “The French are now less active,” she adds. “I hope they will come back soon.” The majority of Drouot’s buyers come from Europe, United States and countries like Russia and China. The Asian market is very particular.

Traveling all the way from Asian countries to the center of Europe, Asian representatives often come just to bid for Asian art, “which is self-explainable,” says Alain Leroy, “since they spent 50 years destroying everything in a cultural revolution.”

Russia’s heritage, too, constantly figures in among the lots. Like those from Asia, Russian buyers have a tendency to spend their wealth on their own country’s rarities -- art, jewelry, antiques, and, certainly, Fabergé.

Members of India’s upper class also travel the long distance to Paris for Drouot auctions on a fairly consistent basis. The money spent by Russian and Asian customers at French auction houses like Drouot have made them very sought after and appreciated customers.

Walking amid a sea of antiques, sculptures and clothes at Eve, his firm’s headquarters, Alain Leroy is followed by his lively Springer Spaniel, Joke. On this day, Leroy is dressed in a grey suit but no bowtie. He sits down for an interview in his office and recalls his many years at

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Drouot, starting all the way back in 1975 when he arrived as a law student and signed his first contract. He began selling four years later. Today, he runs his own firm. He and his team of five employees at Eve conduct between 40 and 45 sales a year.

“I like Drouot because it’s a mixture of everything,” says Leroy. “We still have a lot of customers who are infected by this virus of antiquity. And they come from all backgrounds: teachers, doctors, professors, lawyers and singers.” All of them, he says, look for rare items -- and most times they find it.

Drouot, he says, is a mixture of merchandise, culture and people. There is constant contact with both customers and items. “Sometimes you meet an item and you realize you’ve never seen anything like that before,” he says, “and that item speaks to you. You want to know what it is. It opens a door for you.”

The problem with Drouot, he says, is that “if you want to be in it, you have to be there every day.” There are clients, he says, who have been coming for over 20 years and have never bought anything. “It’s like a theater for them, it’s heated.”

Leroy has observed a dramatic change in the auction business over the past four decades. “If you look at the auctioneer profession 50 years ago,” he says, “it was very

secluded, concentrated and extremely conservative.” In those days, he adds, there were rules against commerce and publicity.

“What has really changed,” he says with an air of sadness, “is the contact with people. It is no longer personal.”

When Leroy started out, phone bids did not exist. Now, with Internet and cell phones, fewer customers are present in the auction rooms. “We never see some of the buyers physically anymore. They just don’t come,” he says, “All you see is their bank account, and never who they are or what their sensibility is.”

Each auctioneer has his or her own clients and co-working experts to help them describe the objects they sell, and estimate the prices. “Both quality and name are important,” says Leroy, “Just like how Fabergé has now become a magic word. If there are two exact same eggs but one is made by Cartier, it will cost only 30% of the one named Fabergé.”

Leroy describes some collectors as “monomaniacs” because they specialize in collecting particular items -- “objet de vitrine, Fabergé, African or Chinese art.”

International buyers come to Paris, he says, because “France is like an attic with a lot of culture -- there are just so many things to be found.”

It is an evolving market, with changing fashion, com-

pletely different from what it was 50 or even 20 years ago, including the change in prices, value and preferences.

“Yesterday,” he says, “we sold a dress for 70,000 euros.”

Culture, he notes, comes with time. “People who could buy a work of art for 20 or 30 thousand euros just because it’s fun, don’t do it anymore,” he says. “Younger people prefer spending their money elsewhere.” It is a question of fashion, simplicity and a different way of life.

The act of selling, Leroy says, is a challenge. It’s the same procedure “whether you’re selling Picasso worth millions or an engraving worth 300 euros.” Today, he adds, it is easier to sell something that is worth a lot of money than something that is not.

“As an auctioneer, you don’t make much money,” says Leroy. “But it’s a lot of fun. It’s a wrestling match.” He notes that a good auctioneer needs to know what buyers are thinking, determining if they are in it together to buy an item or if they are trying to stop each other. The process is psychological, he say, “like a poker game.”

“It’s a nice life,” says Leroy, reclining behind his desk, “very much so.” When asked if he would pose for a photograph, he quickly stands up. “Wait,” he says, “I have to put my bowtie on.” •

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Beyond Beliefs

Homegrown Jihadis p.44 Affront National p4.8 Combo p.50 Enter the No-Go Zone p.58 42

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beyond beliefs

HOMEGROWN ISIS recruitment knows no borders -- pulling youths from democratic nations in the West. Two French families share their heartbreak and shock after their sons left France for Syria to fight for this extremist group.

Written and photographed by Amanuel Neguede and Gabriela Wilson.

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he 9/11 attacks against the World Trade the face of terrorism.

Center were perpetrated by Al Qaida -- a In the wake of the terrorist attacks, the entire foreign terrorist organization. None of the French nation felt under fire. Many turned to the terrorists in those planes were American. national anthem, “La Marseillaise”. The familiar Nearly fifteen years later, many jihadist recruits anthem -- chanted at soccer matches in big stadiums who embrace radical Islam and turn their hatred among other events -- contains the belligerently against the West are not foreigners in the countries defiant words desperately needed to boost French they attack. They are born, raised and educated in morale in the wake of the attacks.

Britain, Belgium, France and Germany.

For a full week young and old in France chanted The three young men who perpetrated attacks in the anthem in the streets, in public squares, and in Paris early this year were “home grown” terrorists Métro stations. French MPs stood in Parliament -- born and raised in France. The horrific events and belted out their “La Marseillaise”. “I would not of January 9, 2015 will be stay at home and watch it on forever imprinted in the the news” says Julie Lecuyer, French national conscience a casting director at the AGAINST US TYRANNY’S, -- a terrifying reminder French television network BLOODY BANNER IS RAISED, that no one is safe in this TF1. “I went out to everyone DO YOU HEAR IN THE COUNTRYSIDE, country. that we were all together in THE ROAR OF THOSE FEROCIOUS SOLDIERS? Jean Voisin, an American this.” A few days after the THEY’RE COMING RIGHT INTO OUR ARMS University of Paris alumattacks, French prime minTO CUT THE THROATS OF OUR SONS, OUR WOMEN nus, expresses stunned disister Manuel Valls stated: - LA MARSEILLAISE belief shared by many of “The problem is not that his fellow French citizens: there are a lot of jihadists in “Where are we? Can this France, the problem is that really happen here? I cannot they are French jihadists.” believe this happened. Does anyone deserve to be Some radicalized French youths have left the executed like that?” country to fight in Syria and may never return.

After the of Paris attacks -- first at the Charlie One devastated father whose son left to join ISIS Hebdo offices where most of the editorial team says his boy “does not even speak Arabic, I don’t were murdered, then at the Jewish supermarket understand why he is doing this.” We will call this Hyper Casher -- Parisians felt a need to go out youth Noor -- not his real name. His father is an into the streets and voice their anger. Christians, immigrant from Sudan and his French-born mother Jews, Muslims, atheists and people from diverse has Italian origins. Noor’s father says his son was cultural backgrounds stood hand-in-hand at Place never exposed to Sudanese culture and has only de la République in a public show of solidarity -- seen a few photos of Khartoum, Sudan’s capital. holding up banners stating “Je suis Charlie”, “Je suis Nearly a year and half ago, Noor left France to fight Ahmed” or “Je suis Libre”. They refused to cower in in the “Holy War.” He now lives in the Syrian town

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beyond beliefs

of Raqqa, where ISIS headquarters are located, and keeps contact with his father through free mobile phone apps such as Whatsapp and Viber. “Every time I call him, I fear someone else will pick up the phone to tell me my son is dead,” says his father.

Nothing about Noor’s early life predestined him to become a jihadi. Born in Paris in 1990, Noor’s childhood was normal growing up on Avenue de Versailles in the city’s prosperous 16th arrondissement. He took karate lessons and tutored at home on weekends. Then, when Noor was 13, his parents suddenly divorced. Noor was the eldest of three and felt obliged to conceal his anxieties from his younger siblings. “The younger ones didn’t understand what was happening,” says Noor’s father. “He would reassure his little sisters that everything was going to be alright.”

Added to the shock of his parent’s unexpected divorce, Noor’s father faced a dire financial situation that dealt a harsh blow to Noor and his two sisters.

They moved form one of Paris’ most expensive areas to a cheaper Paris suburb called Corbeil-Essonnes, which has a negative reputation as a dangerous banlieue. That’s when Noor’s life changed. He started taking drugs, then he was dealing dope. Soon he

was selling large quantities of hashish. He got into petty fights, then graduated to gang violence and theft targeting small businesses. It is the same tragic story of too many young Muslims in France -- falling into petty criminality, and ending up escaping into extremism.

“I was woken up so many times by police officers telling me my son’s in trouble,” says his father. Needless to say, his son’s in-and-outs at police stations worried him. Even though Noor never served hard time in a French penitentiary, his attitude easily could have led him down that dead-end road. He ended up taking another path however: radical Islam.

Not all homegrown jihadis fighting for ISIS were brought up in Muslim families, many converted to radicalized Islam. Prior to his departure, Noor married a French girl who had converted to Islam a few months before. His father says they met few days before the voyage to Syria to make sure they knew each other a little. “And if they didn’t like one another,” he adds, “then a different wife would be offered to him after his initiation training.”

The father’s tragic expression reveals the tortured lives of French parents of children who have left to fight for “extremists that do not represent Islam.” He 45

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George (left) and his brother, Ossama (right)

says Noor’s decision to take up arms was prompted and his mother is a stay-at-home mom. Like Noor, by overexposure to the war in Syria, especially on George does not speak a word of Arabic, but was the Internet. He recalls how Noor was constantly often seen frequenting the neighborhood Mosque. watching propaganda videos criticizing the Amer- George left for Syria with three of his closest male ican-led coalition against ISIS. For Noor, says his friends. father, the coalition was waging war “specifically His mother, Khadijah, is devastated by her son’s targeting Muslims.” decision and still cries thinking about the tragedy.

Noor’s father says that, while dying a martyr is “George was always an excellent student,” she says, a privilege in Islam, dying for ISIS is not a hero’s adding that his teachers always gave him good redeath. He says his son left ports and grades. She says for Kobané with twenty her son’s life was perfectly other jihadi recruits, but normal -- until this past only two returned from the summer. fighting in that city. “Dying “DYING IN THOSE CONDITIONS “He was always locked in those conditions does in his room, or glued to his DOES NOT MAKE YOU A not make you a martyr,” he cell phone,” she says, wipMARTYR,” HE SAYS. “IT’S A says. “It’s a lonely death, far ing tears from her cheeks. from everyone you love.” found receipts showing LONELY DEATH, FAR FROM “I According to the European 1,400 euros of cell phone Commission 1,450 French minutes.” His behavior did EVERYONE YOU LOVE.” citizens are fighting for not change slowly, but alISIS today. One of them most overnight. “I went to is George Milostny, who see the police in November, at age 18 is even younger and I told them something than Noor. Born in 1997 in the southern French was wrong with him. I told them he was probably town of Remoulins, he grew up in the working-class getting involved with wrong people at the mosque.” neighborhoods of Nimes. His family is Muslim, but She repeatedly notified the authorities about her son’s with the exception of Ramadan, religion was never worrying behavior, she says, but nothing was done. a priority at home.

Taking the situation into her own hands, Khadijah George’s parents are both originally from Djibouti, confiscated her son’s passport and French ID card. an old French colony on the horn of Africa. His According to psychologist, Eliane Theillaumas, father Ebrahim was a soldier in the Foreign Legion who works for a French Anti-Terrorist Police Unit

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(UCLAT), George displayed many of the classic signs of a potential jihadist recruit -- especially his obsession with his cell phone.

George stole his older brother’s passport to leave the country for Syria. He fled towards the end of February and hasn’t contacted his family since early March. The last message his mother received was a WhatsApp text message stating he was “doing good” and “almost spoiled.” Attached to the message, George posted a picture of a Domino’s pizza with assorted toppings. His last message was that he was “going to begin my training soon.” The parents of George’s three other friends received an identical message -- a sign that these messages home are in fact scripted. “Someone else obviously sent this!” says Khadijah. “What if my son is already dead?”

The town of Nimes has sent an astonishing number of male youths to Syria. According to journalist David Thompson, author of a book on French jihadis, no fewer than 10 people from Nimes have died over the past few months fighting for ISIS. But more than 40 others from Nimes are currently jihadis in Al-Hassakah in Syria.

“Ninety-eight percent are recruited via the Web,” says Sulayman Valsan from the Prevention Center against sectarianism related to Islam. “Headhunt-

ers working for Al-Qaida can pick and chose their potential recruits using keywords on Facebook.”

Teenagers in the privacy of their bedroom are targets of recruiters.

French authorities have made homegrown jihadis a priority issue and many measures have been put in place. For example, tabac shops are required to ask for photocopies of ID cards of anyone purchasing over 300 euros of cell phone credits. A government website was also launched to counter the effect of online recruitment, providing detailed information on how online brainwashing occurs. Many jihadis returning from Syria have been arrested and a few were released under strict probation, but all of these steps aren’t stopping French youth from being radicalized.

Many homegrown jihadis, like Noor and George, come from the French banlieues, but the problem goes beyond France’s desolate suburbs. And it’s not only a French problem. As reported in the British press, the home of a UK politician was searched after discovering his son was suspected of leaving for Syria. The diversity of profiles of homegrown jihadis, in France and elsewhere, shows that anyone can be a potential recruit. •

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AFFRONT NATIONAL

France is home to the largest immigrant population in Europe. With the rise of the far-right Front National immigration has become a highly politicized issue.

By Anastasiia Yarova.

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rance is one of the most multicultural nations in the world.

The country counts more than 5 million immigrants -- nearly 7 million when their children are included -- in a total population of about 65 million. That’s about 11 percent of France’s population.

The majority of immigrants in France are Muslim -- roughly 7.5 percent of them. The majority of undocumented immigrants come from the Maghreb -- a region that makes up most of Northwest Africa.

Recent polls in France indicate that a majority of French citizens believe there are too many immigrants in their country. Immigration, notably illegal immigration, is the issue that has been the most politicized in France, especially by the far-right Front National party.

And yet France, as noted, has long

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been a country of immigration. The Shengen Area, established in 1995, counts 26 European countries whose citizens can move freely on the continent. The founding principles of Shengen find their origins in the post-Second World War climate when the continent wanted to avoid another war based on virulent nationalism.

The European ideal was based on creating interdependencies. Nations that once thought of each other as enemies were successfully converted into neighbors. France attracts the highest proportion of immigrants in Europe, and Paris is one of the most popular destinations. However, only one third of immigrants in France come from Shengen countries; the majority comes from non-European countries, especially the Arabic-speaking-- and Muslim -- countries of Northern Africa. Even though the vast majority

of undocumented immigrants come to France legally, they break the law afterwards by not leaving the country at the appointed time. This problem is due to France’s open visa waiver programs to which the Front National is vehemently opposed.

The explosion of immigration into France has raised the issue of the country’s intolerance towards outsiders. In 2009, President Nikolas Sarkozy stated: “France is a nation of tolerance and respect, but it also asks to be respected.

One cannot reap the advantages of living in France without respecting any of its laws, any of its values, any of its principles.”

Traditionally, the French have defined their national identity by strong attachments to language, culture, and religion. Their sense of national belonging has been solid and distinct.

Some claim the French national iden-

beyond beliefs the French franc, France lost the right to determine French public policy in key areas such as currency value which can impact national exports and job creation.

While the Front National gathers support in France, the issue of immigration and integration into French society remains unresolved – and often explosive. The children of immigrant families are facing an uncertain future because they are, paradoxically, French-born and yet feel foreign. French government initiatives to alleviate the anxieties of immigrants won’t remedy much deeper ills in French society. On a French government website about immigration issues, a youth called François, born in an immigrant family in the working-class Paris region of SeineSaint-Denis, wrote that he fears “we

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tity engendered a culture of suspicion towards foreigners. The limits of multiculturalism in France may also be due to the inward-turned national identity of the French. Despite the negative reputation associated with post World War II nationalism, today France appears to have returned to nationalistic ideals in the name of protecting its language and culture.

The Front National has seized on French citizens’ distrust of foreigners to make tremendous political gains in recent years. Party founder Jean-Marie Le Pen shrewdly tapped into the public mood in France, claiming that traditional French values were under threat by immigration. Le Pen has been accused in French courts of xenophobia and anti-Semitism. His party, created in 1972, is now one of the country’s largest political forces, led by his daughter Marine Le Pen. She is known to be more liberal and democratic than her father. She wants to reduce immigration, whereas her father wanted to stop it altogether.

Yet, the means by which she wants to achieve stability and maintain a peaceful atmosphere in France remain controversial.

After the terror attacks on Charlie Hebdo this year, in a moment of national mourning, anger, and fear towards radical Islam, she stated that France should return the death penalty and proposed a national referendum if she wins the presidential elections in 2017. The possibility of a Le Pen victory cannot be excluded given her high score in French opinion polls thanks to her more pragmatic approach to politics.

In 2014, the Front National triumphed in European elections with 25 percent of the votes. The reason for such popularity, according to many pundits, is the party’s hostility to the euro currency. The purpose of the European Union was to create the free movement of both people and capital along with services and goods.

The EU established a single market with its 26 members, most of whom belong to the European monetary union -- the eurozone. By giving up

this image. They do not want you here.

[If] you are not educated, they might let you stay here on a permanent basis but only if you are willing to settle for the minimum wage and do some of the most demeaning jobs.” The professor also mentions that French society is not open-minded and there is no unity between French people: “They are not racist, they are normal; and France is a nationalist country as every other country is, I suppose.

People here are afraid of each other and this is the biggest problem...I don’t feel the unity, as there is always the systematic categorization between the French nation and minorities. There is no trust.”

Illegal immigration, meanwhile, remains a huge problem in France.

Last year, French border police arrested more than 5,000 illegal immigrants.

The French Prime Minister Manuel Valls recently spoke on the subject of illegal immigration and suggested some solutions to this problem. One of them was to use more efficient processes, such as faster deportation of undocumented immigrants -- as long as at least half of those arrested in recent years are permitted to remain in the country. Those who stayed in France experience some daily public pressure.

The president’s speech on national identity and the stressed topic of rising immigration (and the subsequent problems it causes) was a kind of slap in the face for those who are not French but are trying to make a life for themselves in the country. Moreover, recent reports show that French-born citizens with immigrant backgrounds -- as opposed to French citizens without Maghreb roots -- are more likely to have unstable working lives with poor salaries, and are therefore more likely to live in poor neighborhoods.

This discrimination is still playing a feature role in almost every sector of life in France, and is having a crucial impact on the social and economic survival of those who call, or wish to call, France home. •

FRANCE ATTRACTS THE HIGHEST PROPORTION OF IMMIGRANTS IN EUROPE

will end up like the American Indians, a minority in our own country.” The grim reality for youths like François is that they face a future of exclusion, poverty and unemployment. They are often excluded due to their skin color or the resonance of their Arab and African surnames.

Okay Gunes, a professor at the University of Paris I and Science Po, is anxious about the rise of the Front National. An immigrant from Turkey who moved to Paris about 10 years ago, 36-year-old Gunes says: “France is not that open to other cultures.

They want you to get educated here, learn about their culture, their way of life, and then you are expected to go back to your home country and share the image of France with your fellow citizens at home. The French export

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COMBO THE CULTURE KIDNAPPER.

Photography by Gabriela Wilson

By Ariana Mozafari

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ou’ll recognize this artist by his controversial posters that embellish city exteriors all over the world.

Whether it be replacing the heads in the most iconic photos of all time with cartoon characters or pasting large blow-ups of Google search results of Tiananmen Square in China (a censored subject in the country), Combo’s art forces a different look at our world.

You may also recognize Combo as the man who was beat up by four Muslim youths when he refused to take down his pacifist street art after the Charlie Hebdo massacre.

The high tensions between religious groups after the massacre had Parisians on edge. When Combo decided to paint the widely-used “Coexist” sign on a Parisian street, with the crescent moon of Islam for the letter “C,” the Jewish Star of David for the letter “X,” and the Christian cross for a “T,” he ended up with severe bruises and a dislocated shoulder.

The artist shared on his Facebook page that four young Muslim men beat him up because he refused to cover up his work. Apparently, they threatened to attack him in the future if he didn’t shave his beard -- a trait associated in today’s day and age with fundamentalist Muslims.

After the incident, Combo continued to stop people in their tracks with his work. His recent artwork includes photos of himself in a traditional Muslim garment, standing next to spray-painted comments like, “Did you know Muslims finish their prayers ‘Amen’ like Christians and Jews” or “Don’t die a virgin. Terrorists are up there waiting for you.”

Featured on these pages, Combo’s “Venus de Clichy” can now be found on the walls of Paris’ ministry of culture. Drawing references from Manet’s “Olympia,” where a nude prostitute stares directly at the viewer, Combo’s “Venus de Clichy” is a clothed Muslim woman staring directly at the denizens of Clichy, a poorer neighborhood of Paris. Just as paintings of unashamed nude prostitutes were controversial during the nineteenth century, Combo brought to life the bold stare of this Muslim woman that screams, “No one likes to talk about religion.”

Combo kidnaps the reality of our culture and turns it back around on us; he makes us see the beautiful and the ugly of our world at the same time.

“My pieces work in a disruptive way, they surprise,” the artist said.

“They are where they shouldn’t be.”•

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ENTER

The No-Go Zone T

Recent terror attacks, coupled with France’s seemingly failed immigration policy, has intensified the long-term problem of Muslim stigmatization.

By Pierre-Jean de Chambon.

hey were a diverse group of tight-knit colleagues working at Charlie Hebdo that fateful day in January -- cartoonists, an economist, the regular office staff and a policeman at the door.

Some were Christian, some were Muslim. Seventeen in total were killed in the terrorist attack that shattered the French nation.

The police raids that followed, mobilizing thousands of armed officers, ended the troubled lives of the three terrorists behind these horrific acts. Two were brothers: 32-year-old Saïd and 34-year-old Chérif Kouachi. The third, Amedy Coulibaly, was 33-years old. Amidst the tragedy and senseless blood shed was another, more desettling aspect to this story: All three of the men were born and raised in France. The terrorists were children of the French Republic.

The Kouachi brothers and Coulibaly were known to the French intelligence services not only for petty felonies, but also for their affiliation with the so-called Buttes Chaumont group, a radical Islamic organization linked to Al-Qaeda. Its mission was to recruit, indoctrinate and train future jihadists. The Buttes Chaumont group had allegedly been dismantled in 2005, and yet it resurfaced just prior to the Charlie Hebdo attack.

“They wanted to die as martyrs,” said Hubert Bonneau, chief of France’s National Gendarmerie Intervention Group at the press conference. “These men didn’t want to negotiate, they wanted to die as martyrs and kill police officers.”

Many troubling issues emerged after these tragic events, including the lack of police surveillance to combat terrorism in France. One other issue in the aftershock remains unresolved: the stigmatization of Muslims in French society.

Stereotyping Muslims in France is not new, but the terrorist attack on Charlie Hebdo has undoubtedly exacerbated the problem in a country where many immigrants feel excluded from French society. According to France’s national statistics agency, INSEE, 56 percent of immigrants in France believe they are victims of discrimination because of their skin color.

“I share this point of view,” says Ibrahim Molokai, who was born and raised in Aubervilliers, a mainly immigrant suburb of Paris. “As a Muslim, many people see me as a potential jihadist.”

There are roughly 8 million Muslims in France, or 7.5 percent of the population of about 65 million. According to studies by various sociologists and politicians, there are between 2,000 to 3,000 Islamic radicals who need to be watched by the French state. While polls indicate that only 27 percent of the French view Muslims unfavorably, a Pew Research poll taken in 2013 revealed that 55 percent of the French believe Islam is not compatible with the West. Many argue that the French media presents a negative image of the Islamic community, especially young Muslims.

On French television, news stories about Muslims often focus on crime. During the live coverage of the three terrorists on the run following the Charlie Hebdo attack, French television showed a young Muslim pretending to brandish an assault weapon. This footage was shown repeatedly on French television news, transforming this menacing teenager into the face of French Muslims.

Following the Charlie Hebdo attack, France’s Muslim leaders were quick to denounce the terrorists. “We condemn this barbaric act against democracy and the freedom of the press,” said the French Council of the Muslim Faith in a press communiqué. Still, many Muslims in France

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beyond beliefs feel they suffer from stereotypes and are stigmatized on His 7th floor flat is simple but equipped with everything a daily basis. “It is not rare for us to walk in the street and from the latest flat-screen TV to a newly renovated kitchen. kindly be asked to show our ID as if by only walking in the He worked his entire life at the French car Renault factory streets we were committing a crime,” says Ibrahim. “We outside of Paris. His salary never allowed him to leave the are tired of this discrimination towards our community HLM housing estate, but he kept saving to give his two children a better future. due to the madness of a few radical extremists.”

His sons, Khaled and Mohamed, now have secure jobs Fear of the radical Islam has led many in France to regard Muslims as a potential danger to their security. and their own families. They moved off the HLM estate And those fears sometimes lead to violence. As sociologist to a calmer suburb, further from Paris in Gonesse, where Abdellali Hajjat, author of How the French Elite Created their children attend primary school. Hicham, now retired, the Muslim Problem, said in a recent interview: “For many, continues to live in his small Aubervilliers apartment Islamophobia has become acceptable racism.” Every year, where he raised his family. Living there is still not easy for more than 600 religion-based attacks occur in France, him, nor is it for the new generation of kids growing up. says the French watchdog, National Observatory Against “Our daily lives are often dictated by police raids ceasing Islamophobia. The same watchdog reports that there were apartments, searching for drugs,” he says.

Most of the youth who live in these desolate suburban 116 acts against Muslims following the Charlie Hebdo ghettos feel marginalized. “We do not go to regular high attacks, including attacks on mosques.

Since 2010, only four terrorist attacks in France have been schools, we go to “ZEPs” (Zone d’Education Prioritaire -committed by Muslims. Compare that with the hundred low-income areas targeted for special educational needs),” terrorist attacks committed in Corsica in the 2012-13 says Ibrahim, the 20-year-old from Aubervilliers. “It is period, mainly by Corsican separatist groups. Hundreds not easy to integrate within the other communities as our schools are in the middle more have been carried out of the estate, knowing that by the separatist group, ETA our estate has around three (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna), a quarters of Muslims.”

Basque terrorist organization FEAR OF THE RADICAL After the Charlie Hedbo fighting for independence. attack, much of France was These numbers reveal that ISLAM HAS LED MANY IN shocked to learn that some France suffers more from teenagers at school homegrown political terFRANCE TO REGARD MUSLIMS Muslim had refused to observe the rorism. And yet the French nationally-mandated two media gives these terrorist atAS A POTENTIAL DANGER TO minutes of silence for the tacks less dramatic coverage. victims of the terrorist killMany believe France’s THEIR SECURITY. ings. When that was reported failed immigration policies on French television news, it are at the origin of negative doubtlessly only reinforced stereotypes of Muslims. Folnegative attitudes towards lowing the Second World War, the French government needed labor, so they turned Muslims as not sharing French values. “The Charlie Hebto French colonies to send workers to rebuild the war-rav- do attack was an extremely complicated situation for our aged economy. France received a wave of immigration in community,” says Hicham. “We were all looked at as a the 1960s and 1970s, mostly from southern Europe but potential threat for the French Republic after the regretalso from Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. This influx of table acts of the Kouachi brothers and Amedy Coulibaly immigrants from the Maghreb region of North Africa -- whose interpretation of Islam is nothing similar to ours.”

The challenge for the French government is to destroy eventually created housing shortages. Instead of integrating immigrants into French society, the government built the influence of radical imams who indoctrinating troubled ghetto-like housing projects called “HLM” (Habitation à and confused French youths such as the Kouachi brothers.

Loyer Modéré, or Rent-Controlled Housing) on the out- French Prime Minister Manuel Valls recently announced skirts of the cities. This physical separation of immigrant the government will invest €425 million in intelligence communities, banishing them to the sordid suburbs of and security apparatus and create 2,680 new jobs in police major urban centers, including Paris, made it difficult for forces in order to combat these terrorist cells within the next three years.

Muslims to integrate into French society.

The French government must also find solutions to in“We were never truly integrated,” says Hicham Bouaziz, a 62-year-old who immigrated to France from Morocco tegrate the diverse immigrant communities that, suffering when he was in his twenties. He was among those who from the stigma that comes with their ethnic origins, are responded to President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing’s call to feeling increasingly humiliated and resentful. Indeed, the rebuild the country in the 1970s. Hicham now lives in an lasting legacy of the Charlie Hebdo attack may well be the HLM council house in the working-class Parisian suburbs. tarnishing of the entire Muslim population in France. •

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The Perception of Ink Spanning from prehistoric man to modern day, tattooing has undergone vast transformations. What was once limited to rebels is now so mainstream that even professionals are going under ink.

By Ariana Mozafari. Photography by Carenina Sanchez

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he vast convention hall at La Villette is buzzing. It’s not the murmured buzz of human chatter, or the ambient buzz of commercial clatter. It’s a strangely unfamiliar buzzing sound -- unless you’ve been tattooed.

On an early March weekend the world’s top tattoo artists gathered in the Grande Halle de la Villette, a renovated abattoir on the northeastern edge of Paris. Nearly 350 tattooists are busy at their trade, sticking electric colored pens into the skin of clients who have flocked here from all parts of the globe for the Mondial du Tatouage gathering, attended by some 30,000 this year. Onlookers mill about among hundreds of stands, gawking at tattoo artists, pens buzzing, intensely focused on decorating skin with ink.

The Mondial du Tatouage founder is a household name: Tin Tin. Long considered the tattoo king in Paris, Tin Tin has worked on the skin of many celebrities in the three decades he’s been in the business.

When major fashion magazines need “fake ink” applied to the skin of supermodels, they turn to Tin Tin. He regularly appears on television, giving sound bites on the changing culture of body art and evolving perception of tattoos.

Tin Tin started back in the days when tattoos were still emerging in the cultural mainstream, moving away from their negative stereotype as the trademark of leather-clad bikers and trashy hookers.

“At first, the people who were showing off their tattoos were the rockers, the bandits,” Tin Tin said in a recent interview with Metro News. “But today we tattoo housewives and businessmen. The clientele has evolved more by the number of people we tattoo. We are reaching all

classes of society.” As tattoos become increasingly commonplace in most Western societies -- even considered normal -- the perception of tattooists has also changed. Tin Tin says he and his fellow tattooists are finally recognized for what they are -- artists.

Paris has long been at the center of avant-garde movements -- from the explosion of modern music and art a century ago to pantsuits for women in fashion. Fittingly, a major exhibition on the history of tattoos has arrived in the French capital. “Tattooists, Tattooed,” running at the Musée du quai Branly in the 7th arrondissement, is a long-overdue affirmation that tattoos are a museum-worthy cultural artifact and art form.

The “Tattooists, Tattooed” exhibition documents the cultural history of tattoos stretching back thousands of years to prehistoric man. We learn that tattoos didn’t always serve as creative body decor. One of the oldest known tattoos dates back 5,300 years to an individual known as Ötzi the Iceman, a mummified Copper Age man whose long-frozen body was discovered by hiking tourists nearly twenty-five years ago in the Alps between Austria and Italy. Ötzi had over 61 tattoos of lines, dots and simple crosses on his body. The earliest tattoos, like Ötzi’s, we made by cutting into the body with sharp blades and rubbing the open wounds with charcoal.

X-rays revealed that Ötzi had bone degeneration at the location of each of his markings, leading researchers to speculate that these early tattoos were used to heal arthritis. During the Middle Kingdom of Egypt, around 2,000 BC, tattoos on women and female statuettes symbolized fertility and sexuality. In

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Māori tribal culture in New Zealand, the “moko” -- a tattoo covering the face -- marked a rite of passage into adulthood and the ultimate affirmation of identity. A facial tattoo signified the wearer’s place in his or her family and specific tribe. If the facial pain was too much to bear while getting tattooed, the unfinished tattoo was a sign of cowardice. In other cultures, tattoos were used to punish. In ancient Greek and Japanese cultures, for example, the tattoo as indelible mark on the body of a criminal was in itself punishment. The Japanese tattooed different symbols on both the face and arms to mark where a serious crime was committed. The Greeks and Romans tattooed their slaves and mercenaries as a deterrent against desertion and escape. In the Middle Ages, crusaders recognized their dead in battle by a Jerusalem Cross tattoo. If a crusader died in battle, he would be assured a Christian burial thanks to the tattooed symbol.

The word “tattoo” originates from the Polynesian “tatau”, which means to tap a mark into the body. The English explorer, Captain James Cook, adopted this word when he landed in Tahiti in 1769 and saw heavily inked islanders -- or “tattooed savages.” The word “tattoo” was thus adopted into the English vocabulary, trumping older versions of the word, like “scarring,” “painting” and “staining.” When Captain Cook and his crew returned to Britain, many of his seamen were sporting tattoos, giving birth to the association of sailors and tattoos. Over time, tattoos permeated European culture and by the Victorian period members of the upper classes were getting tattooed. Even Queen Victoria was rumored to have a tattoo showing a tiger fighting a python. While this claim is open to dispute, her eldest son and heir, Edward VII had a tattoo of a Jerusalem Cross.

In Japan, tattoo culture thrived for centuries though today is associated with the criminal underworld, especially with the infamous Yakuza gang. It wasn’t until the twentieth century that tattoos as “spectacle” entered Western cultures, largely due to the migration of traveling circus performers. Technology

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advances in the United States led to a 20 percent of the population between the professional domain. “If you have “mass production” of tattoos. World ages 25 and 34 have at least one. Pro- a visible tattoo, you’re not going to get War II is considered the “Golden Age” fessor Nicholas Thomas, author of on the TV plateau, a lot of people will the book Body Art, says tattoos are be put off,” says Kazolias. “If you’re of tattooing, as soldiers and sailors now a part of young peoples’ culture going to do interviews with ministers got tattooed to mark their patriotism.

With this fashion, the upper echelons because of a cultural shift towards and presidents and you’ve got visible of society began to disdain tattoos. taking ownership of one’s body and tattoos, I don’t think your editor is Thus began the modern association of identity. “People have all sorts of going to send you to do that interview, surgical interventions, medical and because that could upset people.” tattoos and the lower classes. Sailors Anne-Marie Picard, a French procosmetic. It is even possible to change who had tattoos of naked women visible were not allowed into the Navy; your gender. This means that we now fessor who has been teaching and and women could not get a tattoo see our body as something we have living in Paris since 2002, also believes unless they were 21, married, and a responsibility to design and make. tattoos are a handicap for professional accompanied by their spouse, mainly Even something as simple as a fitness careers. “You never see philosophers, to ensure that tattoo artist wouldn’t routine or a tan indicates this attitude.” doctors, sociologists on the television later face the wrath of an angry father As tattoos are going mainstream, in France who have tattoos,” says or husband. especially among youth, it might be Picard. “Even the young people in Today tattoos, heavily inspired by asked if it’s just a passing trend that these same careers: they don’t have classic Japanese styles, are becoming will fizzle, leaving today’s youth with tattoos. I have never seen anyone on respectable again. According to the body ink -- from finger tattoos to television, speaking as an expert, who “Tattooists, Tattooed” catalogue: “In giant works of art climbing up their had tattoos.”

Picard recounted the disappointment urban societies and in the ‘Westernleg -- that will never fade, dooming of her French husband when ized’ lifestyle, [a tattoo’s] marher two stepdaughters decided ginal character is fading and it is to get tattooed. Picard was less becoming a relatively common bodily ornament.” Whereas 50 Conformity is the rule. There isn’t disappointed by the decision, because her stepdaughters’ years ago, tattoos were seen much room for sartorial eccentricity. tattoos were delicately drawn as markings belonging only to hardened sailors, veterans, and In this setting, visible tattoos make a “like art.” However, she cautions French youth about tattoos in criminals, the stigmatization job candidate the odd one out – interviews. In France, students faded and tattoos evolved from an unspoken reason for rejection. facing interviews are constantly “subculture” status when celebwarned to hide any tattoos they rities embraced tattoo culture. may have on their necks, arms Popular TV shows -- for examor other visible areas. ple “Miami Ink” set in a South Philippe Eynaud, a professor of them as they grow older to a life of Beach tattoo shop and seen in 160 stigmatization and judgment. It’s a Economics at the Sorbonne, says he countries -- gave people an inside troubling paradox – wanting what’s never sees tattoos at the office. “In look into tattoo parlors and created a “in” right now, and also wanting what’s my department there are no tattoos, demand. With those television shows necessary later. Young people want because we don’t hire people who have emerged celebrity tattoo artists, such tattoos, yet they also want security tattoos,” he says. Eynaud, a father of as Miami Ink owner Ami James, Kat -- especially when it comes to the three, is strictly against tattoos for his von D, and Megan Massacre. Soon the children, calling them “une bêtise” -- a dreaded prospect of landing a job. world’s most famous celebrities were France is known for its rigid and con- dumb mistake. showing off their tattoos -- from pop Hank Goldenberg, a student from servative office culture: sharp business singers Avril Lavigne, Amy Winehouse suits for men, pantsuits for women. Philadelphia completing his bachelor’s and Rihanna to actress Angelina Jolie Conformity is the rule. There isn’t degree Paris, is hoping to find a job in and footballers David Beckham and much room for sartorial eccentricity. the city after he graduates. Behind a Tim Howard. Theresa Vail was the In this setting, visible tattoos make a head of curls and a charismatic smile, first Miss America contestant to disjob candidate the odd one out -- an this 20-year-old boasts a tattoo like play her tattoos during the swimsuit many young people. His tattoo is unspoken reason for rejection. competition in the 2014 pageant.

George Kazolias, a reporter and hidden on his chest. It reads: Audentes Today some 36 percent of Americans TV news producer for Paris-based Fortuna Juvat, which means “Fortune between ages 18 and 26 are tattooed, news organization Agence Internatio- Favors the Bold.” He knows that inked according to the Pew Research Cennale d’Images de Télévision, believes motto could be a big problem for many ter. In France, the Institute Français tattoos will hamper young people in employers in France. “I think there’s a d’Opinion Publique reports that about

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line to be drawn between tattoos that on changing professional codes in how much they think about them. In are visible on the body and those that France, when asked for her last name, some cultures it’s almost a necessity. are not,” says Goldenberg. “The business Isobel refuses, nervous about scaring For professional football, almost evworld is not accepting of visible tattoos, off future patients. erybody has tattoos, and if you don’t, and if you’re choosing to go into that Marc Feustel, a photographer and you’re almost an outlier.” type of profession, there’s still a lot of blogger for one of the largest advertisWhat about the younger generation pushback against the sort of person ing companies in France, says tattoos entering the workforce? A 2010 Pew that gets a tattoo on their arms or legs are still stigmatized in traditional Research Center report found that, that people can see more often.” professions. “In certain circles, it isn’t while nearly 40% of Millennials are While boasting a visible tattoo is acceptable, like in finance. People inked, 70% of these young people still risky business in many companies, don’t walk around with neck tattoos. say their tattoos are hidden beneath especially in countries like France, some But I’m certain there are some people clothing. Do young people have to professions are embracing the tattoo who work in finance who do have hide their tattoos at work? trend. Isabel, a 50-year-old French tattoos.” Feustel says the creative and Agathe Bouquet, an intern studying doctor, was one of the attendees at the dynamic career fields are more open cuisine at Spontini 50, an exclusive Mondial du Tatouage. She definitely to body art. “There are other circles restaurant in the 2nd arrondissement stood out: a middle-aged woman with where you could climb very high, for of Paris, says the cooking profession is a short bob, glasses and conservative example in design, you’re working in open to tattoos. In part, she says, it’s button-up. One would not have placed a very high-powered environment because cuisine is an artistic field. More her as a tattoo fan, never mind some- and that would be totally acceptable, importantly, in high-class restaurants one who would be tattooed herself. or in advertising, where people almost like Spontini 50 the chefs are out of Under her pressed white blouse, a huge expect it. Even in other fields, these sight in the kitchen, far from the potree-of-life springing cherry tentially disapproving regards blossoms covers her back and of diners. Pierre Morange, a a dragonfly is inked onto her student interning as a marketright leg. If getting a tattoo is ing and events representative at KARMA, AN AMAZING TATTOOIST not eye-popping for a teenager, wine and champagne company Isabel was a doctor in her late Jéroboam, says tattoos are not BASED IN PARIS, TOLD ME THAT forties when she started getting AMONG HIS CLIENTS HE’S TATTOOED a problem in his future profesthem. Both her tattoos are less sion. “You’re looking for a good A SURGEON, A POLICEMAN than a year old. bottle of wine and you’re not AND MEN IN SUITS AND TIES. At the Mondial du Tatouage going to care if the expert who convention, Isabel watched her sells it to you has tattoos,” says 17-year-old daughter get a large Morange. “Also, my career isn’t colorful flower tattoo on her on Wall Street. The atmosphere shoulder. Flowers are a good choice, days, tattoos are less considered to be of my job is less formal.” Some young she says, because they never go out of something marginal.” professionals in Paris have an even style. “I never thought about getting Feustel, who does not have any more open and pro-active attitude tattoos before,” says Isabel. “Before, tattoos himself, says he doesn’t judge to tattoo culture. Alexandre Fredy, a it was a trend: people got tattoos of Parisians with visible tattoos as they’ve 23-year-old optician, has a tattoo-centheir zodiac signs, for example, and become much more commonplace. He tric business that he thinks will take off. that never interested me. Now, it’s sometimes wonders what particular “I’m going to design school next year more of an art, with many different inked symbol or design could mean so I can open my own eyeglasses shop,” tattooists practicing their interesting and why it was so significant for that he says. “Tattoos will be openly shown, techniques and unique styles. It’s like person to want to mark in into their to attract the ‘hipster’ and cool vibe the body is a canvas.” bodies forever. “In the past, tattoos I’m going for. Ideally, I’d like to have Isabel says her tattoos do not pose were associated with a certain kind of an eyeglasses shop that’s two floors, problems for her career as a doctor person, who wanted to rebel against with the second floor being a tattoo in France. “My patients and I joke society in a general way,” he says. parlor. That’s the dream.” For now, about it,” she says. “This doesn’t affect “Nowadays, people use tattoos for however, he’ll have to endure working my relationship with my patients… all different kinds of reasons. They with tucked-away tattoos. Fredy has It’s completely more accepted now use tattoos for commemorating an a large, finely sketched deer whose for professional careers.” Karma, an event, they use tattoos, in the case of antlers sprawl up his right arm to meet amazing tattooist based in Paris, told breast cancer patients who have had a another drawing of a swimming whale. me that among his clients he’s tattooed mastectomy, as a way of marking that He wears long sleeves every day to a surgeon, a policeman and men in suits moment, and people use tattoos for hide the designs. “When I’m the big and ties.” Yet, despite her observations decorations, although I don’t know boss, I will show my tattoos,” he says.•

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The Bouquinistes Along the Seine: past, present, and future Take a stroll along the Seine and connect with the legendary tradition of the Paris book stalls.

By Pierre-Jean de Chambon.

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hey have become part of the Parisian cultural legend -- those history-battered, book-cluttered green boxes that run along the pavement on the banks of the Seine. To local Parisians, the Seine booksellers are called bouquinistes -- boosting books, old newspapers, magazines, posters, maps, postcards and assorted other trinkets. It’s hard to imagine Paris without them.

Spending time wandering along the Seine and looking through the book stalls is a quaint way to spend an afternoon in Paris. Books have become a trendy market again. And there is no better location in the city to browse. The book stalls run along the stretch of the Seine, on both right and left banks, allowing visitors to stroll by the Louvre, Notre Dame Cathedral, the Musée d’Orsay and other famous Parisian staples.

The bouquiniste stretch back to 1859, during the Second Empire, when the Paris town hall granted free concessions to booksellers. Today, there are some 240 licensed bouquinistes along the Seine using a total of roughly 900 boxes.

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While the job of bouquiniste might seem somewhat archaic today, there is plenty of competition to run one of the book stalls. In 2010, Paris city hall received more than 100 applications for 22 boxes.

Recognized by UNESCO in 1991 as a world heritage site, the bouquinistes have become a mustsee for the 27 million tourists who visit Paris every year. The booksellers have had to widen their range of products to attract ready buyers. Some sell padlocks, which tourists often end up attaching to the Pont des Arts as “love locks”, which have become controversial due to the damage caused to the bridge.

Perhaps that is the big question about the Seine booksellers -- whether they can retain the nostalgic appeal of their tradition going back to Napoleon III, or whether they lose their charm as they cater commercially to the whims of tourists.

Though even if some bouquinistes have lost some of their authenticity, a sharp-eyed book connoisseur can still find some great first-edition books cherished by collectors.•

Dans le Noir

A Restaurant in the Dark Offering diners a unique sensory experience, Dans le Noir provides its patrons with a chance to see food differently --by not seeing it at all.

By Ekaterina Vorobieva.

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ave you ever eaten in total darkness?

Have you ever been in a situation when you wondered what the food in front of you looked like? Have you ever been confused about what color wine you were drinking?

Maïté Sutto, manager of avant-garde restaurant, Dans Le Noir, says these sensations are the recipe for success at her eight-year-old Parisian restaurant. “Every day, every service is full,” she says. “People never stop coming, and they are from all over the world.”

What they are also exposed to, she says, is a humanizing experience. “You don’t come here to eat, but to have an amazing experience, a very unique one.”

Sutto, who is from Barcelona, says previously the restaurant had many small tables for sep-

arate groups, but the ambiance became too loud -- people were communicating from table to table, asking each other about food and drinks, laughing over the awkwardness and confusion. Today, the restaurant has been transformed with fewer but bigger tables, thus bringing different groups of people together.

“They make new friends, not even knowing how they look and come out exchanging numbers,” says Sutto. “Even if one comes alone, he or she will never be when they sit at the table. You need to exchange with people around you.”

chance to be capable of having a normal job and to feel comfortable doing it.” Maïté says the waiters are no longer blind, because for the first time, they are like everybody else. “They are no longer the ones having to experience a whole new world,” she says. “You are.”

“However, we’re not here to pity, we’re here to be human,” she adds. “And it is more than a restaurant -- it a unique, sensory, and — most importantly — a human experience.” •

Dans le Noir restaurant 51 rue Quincampoix 75004 PARIS Phone: 01 42 77 98 04 (open Even more fascinating, all the daily from 11h to 19h) waiters and waitresses are either email: resa@danslenoir.com blind or have eyesight deficiency. “We are not only here to give sighted people the experience of eating in the dark,” says Maïté, “but we are also here to give those without sight a

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Gourmet on the move Parisians a great alternative to the classic sit-down restaurant. Without compromising on quality or taste, great food can now be found parked on the street.

By Desiree Suhr-Perez. Photographed by Carenina Sanchez.

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he daredevil camion chefs of Paris have had the odds stacked against them since day one. Cramped into the confined quarters of their food trucks, they are at the mercy of the weather, struggling to find fixed locations, and judged by lingering French culinary snobbism that regards their vehicles as McDonald’s on wheels.

Yet these fearless chefs, after three years of going against the current with their moveable feasts, have become the driving force of modern, urban eats in the French capital. Thanks to the innovative chefs behind food

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trucks such as Le Camion qui Fume, Cantine California, The Sunken Chip!, Tooq Tooq and Tammassino, a new culinary culture has emerged in Paris, reclaiming cuisine rapide as an elegant niche of specialty dishes.

The founding mother of the gourmet camion culture in Paris is Kristin Frederick, chef and owner of Le Camion qui Fume, which was the first food truck to open in Paris with its menu specializing in quality American burgers. A graduate of the School of French Cuisine Ferrandi, the Los Angeles native is classically trained in French gastronomy and built a solid

career working for famous Austrian restaurateur Wolfgang Puck and in Michelin-star restaurants in both California and France. The challenge of launching a gourmet camion in an over-regulated city where no food trucks existed before would have been daunting to most, but Frederick is not most. The spunky American saw an opportunity for revamping a classic LA food style in Paris by adding a touch of French sophistication and letting the local produce speak for itself.

“At the time I was working in LA, there were tons of trucks there,” says Frederick, “There were none here

[in Paris], and it was at that moment where we were like ‘Well, maybe this is possible?’ So I quit my job and started working on everything administrative that needed to be done.”

After facing numerous French bureaucratic hurdles -- from obtaining permits to insurance issues -- her tenacity to introduce the American food truck model to the traditional Parisian market finally paid off. By November 2011, Frederick had her first camion running around the city, circulating between two local farmers’ markets. Her food truck christened Point Éphémère, a bar and music venue on the Canal Saint-Martin which has since become a haven for the city’s best gourmet camions.

Despite the “fast food” stigma and the uncertainty of acceptance by locals, the new phenomenon of upmarket street food served without forks took off in Paris. Parisians swarmed

to food trucks in search of a truly authentic American burger that will not break the bank. Nearly four years after Le Camion qui Fume hit the streets of Paris, the city has finally acknowledged that food trucks are part of the city’s urban culture. Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo has announced that, starting in July 2015, the city will designate forty spots in different arrondissements throughout Paris to food trucks. Food truck owners were invited to apply for the fixed location permits before mid-May. In the past, local restaurant owners complained about competition from food trucks, claiming they were not paying the same tax rates. The restaurant lobby made life difficult for food trucks, especially with the city’s high permit costs and limited access to locations.

The new policy announced by Anne Hidalgo is a clear signal that food trucks are here to stay.

“When we first started we would do 300 burgers in one service,” says Kyle Bell, manager of Le Camion qui Fume, “In the beginning there would be lines around the corner and all the way down the street.”

Serving burgers featuring organic French produce, Le Camion qui Fume has focused on creating restaurant-quality cuisine that is both experimental and genuine. Customers have the choice of sea salt and herb crusted fries and an array of burger options -- from the crispy bacon topped Barbecue burger to the Bleu burger infused with melted blue cheese, caramelized onions, and Porto sauce. The menu of Le Camion qui Fume never reaches over 10.50 euros.

“I just want people to eat well and not pay a fortune,” says Frederick. “I don’t want to go to McDonald’s anymore and if McDonald’s is the only thing open then it is sad.”

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Frederick’s success bringing restaurant-grade cooking to the streets of Paris has charted a road for other cutting-edge chefs. “We are not in the countryside,” says Frederick.

“Although there are plenty of food trucks launching all over France, here [in Paris] it is urban, it is modern, and it is what people are asking for.” Today over 12,000 camions are crisscrossing France. Food truck are planting deep roots and transforming the country’s traditional culinary culture.

The same modernizing drive brought the second food truck, Cantine California, to the avenues and markets of Paris in March 2012. Run by Jordan Feilders, a laid-back Canadian-American foodie, Cantine California transports the taste buds of Parisians to California through their distinct menu of Californian staples. With the California state grizzly bear proudly displayed

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on the side of their camion, there is no mistaking the geographical influence behind the menu. With a menu of all-organic tacos and burgers and homemade cupcakes, San Francisco native Feilders has found the right recipe for mixing the vibrant street food culture of the Bay Area with the local delicacies of natural French produce. Using only organic dairy, eggs and meats, Cantine California evokes the sensation of eating at an upscale farm to table brunch spot, as opposed to standing outside a stall at the bustling Marché Raspail, one of the many farmers markets his camion frequents.

“I wanted to bring a taste of home to Paris,” says Feilders, “We are real authentic Californian food in Paris.”

Cantine California’s menu offers a melting pot of international flavors found in California -- from the Ca-

li’Classic burger with cheddar cheese topped with slices of avocado to the Obama burger aka Pancho Villa mixing two types of cheese together with guacamole, garnished with the house secret chipotle sauce and enclosed in freshly baked Tunisian style brioche buns.

“We have a young, international and dynamic team,” says Feilders. “I like good food and eating well. We are not pretentious.”

In April 2014, Cantine California became one the first food trucks to expand into a restaurant. Most would think expansion would bring more work, but the reality is quite the opposite. Located in the 3rd arrondissement, the new restaurant not only allows for a larger menu and seating capacity, but it gives an ease of relaxation to the chefs who have more time and space to cook meals.

“It is normal to start testing something out in a truck,” says Feilders, “then move indoors to somewhere warm and cozy.” A permanent location also brings something foreign to most food truck owners: stability.

“The food truck business is really, really, really hard.” says Frederick. “It seems so easy but it is not. I cannot explain to people enough how hard it is. When people say, ‘I want to launch a food truck,’ my first question is, ‘Have you worked in restaurants before? Have you worked in this industry before?’

Because if you think for one second that this is going to be easy, you are very mistaken. Food trucks are ten times more difficult to run and operate than my fixed restaurants.”

A restaurant brings the stability of fixed rent and location, shelter from Mother Nature, the ability to stay open when you want, and the luxury

of space. With these advantages, one wonders why a restaurant like Cantine California would stay in the food truck business. Or indeed why a restaurateur would start a food truck.

Some might call them crazy, but the two Brits behind The Sunken Chip!

-- the first roving fish-and-chips joint in Paris -- did precisely that. Michael Greenwold, an award-winning chef, and bar owner James Wheelen originally opened The Sunken Chip! as a restaurant off the Canal Saint-Martin in the summer of 2013. One year later, they took to the streets, adding a camion version of the restaurant to reach hungry patrons throughout Paris and the rest of France.

“It is good to move about,” says Mick Kullmann, the British head chef at The Sunken Chip! “People get to experience fish and chips all over the city this way.”

The Sunken Chip! is English to its core, mixed with a French twist of freshness.

They source a variety of fish, caught daily off the coast of Brittany and beer battered to light and fluffy consistency.

Accompanied with creamy tartar sauce, sea salt rustic chips and seasoning up mushy peas with lime and mint, the classic British dish is garnished with the right amount of contemporary to make it stand out against the crowd.

“First and the best,” says Maxime Villefayot, the French manager for The Sunken Chip! food truck with a cheeky smile and a wink. “The key is good produce.”

“We do real fish and chips,” Kullmann chimed in with a laugh, “Sex, fish, and chips! The rest is fucking nuts.”

Although the boys are new to the camion culture, their product and goofy nature makes them a sight to see. A Brit and a Frenchie adding a “healthy”

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angle to fish and chips in Paris, while given Paris the most traditional en- ambiance that is welcoming, that is listening to LA hip hop beats in the vironment for Thai food: the streets. real and that is urban.” back of a food truck sounds more like “Thailand is the mother of street food,” Unlike the attitude of Parisian restaua one-liner than the next go-to lunch says Barri. Valuing quality over quan- rant owners, who view the opening of spot at MK2 Bibliothèque on the edge tity, classic Thai dishes, and pouring a new restaurant as increased compeof the 13th arrondissement. love into each dish they make, Tooq tition, camion chefs are a community The Sunken Chip! is more than just Tooq has embodied the heart of the of artists focused on transforming classic and clean dishes; you come camion culture. “The focus is to save the production of gourmet quality for the food but you stay for the am- homemade food and help food lovers cuisine. Committed to a lifestyle that biance. Putting hard work and care not be fooled by junk food,” says Barri, generates ingenuity in modern cuisine, into their products behind the scenes, “Parisians are ready for food trucks the environment of the camions lets then serving up seemingly effortless so we have to keep it fresh and tasty!” emerging chefs sharpen their knives meals with each service, they are the Hoping to protect the creative flair on their terms. Wherever a camion embodiment of the easygoing street of mom-and-pop camions from as- parks, the grill next door becomes food culture. sembly line cooking, Barri and his not only their neighbor but also their “No, but really, it is great fun, reward- wife have founded the organization, brethren. Yet the fine line between ing, and hard work,” says Kullmann, Artisan Ambulant, which provides supporting other camion chefs and “It is not like that movie ‘Chef ’. We support for young French camion keeping your own clientele is a trapeze aren’t in Miami with 40°C weather. startups so they preserve the risk-tak- act for food truck owners.

We are stuck in the south of Paris, ing essence of the culture. “The quality “The other trucks are very chill,” freezing our tits off trying to work.” of the food will decrease as industrial says Kyle Bell of Le Camion qui Fume, Shades of black, grey, and white pausing for a moment and concrete buildings engulf the pointing at Bahu, the Indian agora of conspicuously dischef in the Le Comptoir Indien played food trucks at MK2 food truck across the way. Bahu I WANTED TO BRING THE Bibliothèque. The only warmth had an open fire in the back and and solace found in this sprawlwas making fresh naan on the TASTE OF HOME TO PARIS ing empty space of Paris is the spot. “He used to be our head aromas exuding from the camichef,” says Bell with a chuckle. ...REAL, AUTHENTIC ons. By lunch hour the ring of The epitome of camion the camions becomes a center brethren is Tom Sanati, a CALIFORNIAN FOOD of open-air dining overflowing French journalist turned chef with locals of all ages, from and owner of Tommassino. amped-up high schoolers to The Napoli pizzeria on wheels, swarming businessmen. The opened just a year ago, using incircle of food trucks creates an gredients straight from Rungis ambiance of coziness with homemade food trucks are emerging,” says Barri. Marché International, the largest prodishes exhibited by the daily chang- “The main reasons why food trucks duce market in Paris. Sanati pizzas are ing selection of camions. Customers are so special compared to fast food fresh out of an Italian grandmother’s weave between lines eager for a piece will disappear if it continues this way.” oven that happens to be placed in his of this new craze, and those who have “Like the people who thought they periwinkle blue, three wheeled, Piaggo found a seat on the cold concrete de- were just going to launch burger trucks Apé. “It is more open minded,” says vour their food with their to-go bags in Paris right after us, it is not work- Sanati about camion culture, “You proudly displayed next to them. The ing,” says the Le Camion qui Fume’s can do whatever you want.” relaxed environment blocks out the owner Kristin Frederick, who is also Paris’ camion food culture, with its constant stress of Paris, reminding president of the Street Food Associ- deceptively effortless manifestation of the French for a few hours each day ation, “But that is normal because quality dishes, has made a reputation to focus on one thing: the joys of a what we want to see from someone for itself. Determined to offer their well-made meal. in a food truck is someone cooking clientele more than just cuisine rapide, Enzo Barri, co-owner of Tooq Tooq, their heart out.” She adds that “the the food truck is now a driving force an authentic Southern Thai food truck, recipe for success is so simple it al- behind modern eats in Paris. It’s an says “street food is the future of the most sounds useless to say.” The right art best described by Sanati: “Le cose new way of life in the big cities -- no recipe, she adds, is to “focus on a good belle sono semplici.” The beautiful one has time for lunch!” Barri and product, to have something that can things are simple.• his wife (and head chef) May have be accessible to everyone and in an

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A Q&A WITH GASPAR NOÉ

Peacock writer Films: I Stand Alone, Irréversible, Enter the Void, Love.

What’s your favorite movie?

I have many, but the one I watch the most is 2001 Space Odyssey. I saw it when I was 6, then when I was 8, and then when I was 10 and every year since. I’ve seen it at least 30 times.

Did you ever have any issues with the tight drug laws in Japan when filming Enter the Void?

Drugs? No issues. Curiosity! I’ve always been curious. Drugs are drugs -- some are illegal, some are not, but I would say that the ones I like the most are alcohol, coffee, and salt.

I’m putting salt in everything. I like opium too.

How you’ve ever done drugs to see a scene differently?

Yeah. I’ve done a lot before. Especially during the preproduction of Enter the Void. The moment I started filming in Japan, I became clean because it is very risky. The whole process of

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shooting the movie there, I did not smoke one joint.

What’s your biggest fear?

I would say that there are levels of pain. For example, it’s not a fear, but I would not want to go through bone cancer because it is the most painful kind of cancer. When morphine doesn’t work, it eats your brain and your soul because you cannot do anything else besides think about the pain. Also, any situation when you are stuck -- I’m not claustrophobic, but situations in which, whatever the art, you cannot act freely.

What would you do if you didn’t do film?

At a point I thought I would enjoy running a club. But the problem with clubs is you have all these people that are there drunk or on coke every night and it consumes your energy. Or maybe if I wasn’t a movie director, I would be a journalist. I’m

also fascinated by spies and hackers.

But the thing is that being a spy is really too risky. You start being in trouble with your own secret service, not the enemies. I would not want to be wanted. You turn paranoid.

Do you have a favorite film that you’ve directed?

I don’t have favorites, I like them all, but I don’t like watching them.

I’ve heard that from a lot of directors. Once you deliver the baby, you like watching people coming out of the theater. You enjoy seeing if the reactions are good or bad. But for sure, I don’t enjoy watching them that much.

If you could change anything in the entire world, what would it be?

Maybe if life was longer. It would be good as long as you use it. •