” I wanted to share all these nuggets that I have collected in recent years », explains Chloé Vasselin. Thursday, his work Guide to Paris boui-bouia collection of 120 addresses of small restaurants d’Ile-de-France is published by Alternatives. ” I had missed them during confinement, that’s when I wanted to highlight these discreet little things that toil in the shadows but continue to delight us. The author tested, several times, all the listed addresses. She has kept only the good kitchens, at low prices (less than 15 euros), where the welcome is warm.
Sitting at the Mesken Borek, a Turkish restaurant in the 10th arrondissement, Chloé Vasselin eats simit and looks at the family photos of a client sitting next to him. He tells her the origin of this bread that she eats for breakfast. ” There are plenty of pastries like these in Istanbul or Ankara »assures him the client. ” The boui-boui is the best place to get to know people, she says. It’s small so there is great proximity, barriers fall more easily.
” This is a bit as if they had invited me to their home”
” The bouis-bouis, they are not found on the main boulevards but in the small parallel streets », she explains. We discover them while strolling one afternoon or while looking for something to eat, after a concert that ended very late. The author prefers them because they are modest, rarely recent, with unpretentious service. ” When I go to the tenants of the bouis-bouis, it’s a bit as if they had invited me to their home, ”says Chloé Vasselin. As an opportunity to ” travel around the corner. »
During the health crisis, ” bouis-bouis » are among the few restaurants that have continued to operate, offering take-out meals. At this time, ” the notion of travel has evolved and people have become more interested in what was around them, explains the author. I was no longer the only one to perceive the interest of the local. »
Discover Paris differently
” I put the package on the 15th arrondissement because I am often told that it is a dead district, jokes Chloé. In fact, it contains a lot of places to discover. » For example, rue des Entrepreneurs, nicknamed ” Tehran on the Seine »which has many Iranian restaurants. Trained guide, Chloé Vasselin wants to break with mass tourism and help people discover another, more cosmopolitan Paris. By taking an interest in the history of bouis-bouis, and their tenants, often from immigrant backgrounds, it highlights a neglected part of the capital.
” Their restaurants are a way for them to continue to keep a link with their tradition, to transmit their culture », says the author. In Paris, there is no shortage of good addresses, but when Chloé Vasselin is interested in a country, she ” never stays in the capital. » His first book only offers addresses in Greater Paris, in Pantin, Saint-Ouen, Bagnolet or Boulogne-Billancourt. But the author is already considering a sequel, which would cover a much wider territory.