He’s an amazing guy…French, of course, with a vision. He made his fortune abroad and came back to help his native land. Admirable. We need more Cédric types and we are making progress. First, he opened Le Sergent Recruteur, a restaurant sans pareil, on the Ile St Louis with great history from the name to the construction to the chef and team not mentioning the provenance of the produce. Extraordinary. Then he managed to buy a number of buildings in a neat area called Le Haut Marais in the 3rd where he is ready to transform an overlooked corner and make it a food and design destination with restaurants, cheese shop, butcher and crêperie as a starter.

Next time you visit Paris skip some of the tourist places and head for the Rue de Vertbois, Volta and neighboring ones to discover the “Jeune Rue” project (a name borrowed from one of Guillaume Apollinaire’s poem).