Stories du Moment

Paris pollution, food industry news, hail, and one very glam apartment

First and foremost, it’s been publication week for me! The Eater Guide to Paris has finally hit shelves in the U.S., Canada, France, and Australia (and May 8 in the U.K., sit tight!) which is energizing personal news that felt somewhat relevant to include in this series. I’ve got some recommendations and deep dives that didn’t make the book for paid subscribers on the horizon, so stay tuned for more. But let’s get into the real newsy bits.

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PARIS & POLLUTION: A MAJOR IMPROVEMENT

Paris has spent the past two decades reshaping itself; carving out bike lanes from former car thoroughfares, planting more greenery, and scrapping tens of thousands of parking spots. The shift hasn’t come quietly: drivers have pushed back hard, with far too many Parisians disparaging Mayor Anne Hidalgo for what they see as a war on cars that shouldn’t be happening (if you’ve read my profile of Hidalgo in The New Parisienne, you’ll recall she has been vilified for everything, not only her environmental measures. And yet she stands firm!).

But facts are facts and the data tells a clear story. According to Airparif, the independent agency that tracks the region’s air quality, levels of fine particulate matter (PM 2.5) have fallen by 55 percent since 2005, and nitrogen dioxide by 50 percent. The agency credits this progress to stricter environmental policies, including curbing car traffic and banning high-emission vehicles—measures that have made the air cleaner, even if they’ve ruffled feathers along the way.

If you’ve been to Paris in the last year, you’ve felt this firsthand. Public spaces overrun with cars are now full of pedestrians (Place de la Concorde is a big one). It isn’t only the air that’s better but the noise pollution, too.

The perspective from taxi and rideshare drivers, however, is, “Paris is impossible. Hidalgo ruined it, she made it impossible to navigate.” Somehow they miss the fact that it would be easier for them to get around, even with fewer lanes, if drivers who don’t actually need cars would finally accept these changes and adapt accordingly. In other words: they need to get off the road.

I hear from my in-laws who live in the suburbs and are car dependent that these changes don’t make them want to come anywhere near Paris. And yet, it truly couldn’t be simpler for able-bodied folks to get to and around the city. Who can really complain about better air quality and high functioning, affordable public transit? Plenty, apparently. But when they do, all I hear is, “ugh parks and trees and breathable air, who needs it?!” (More to the story on Fast Company and WashPo)

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GETTING AWAY WITH IT: MEN IN PARIS FOOD

A few weeks ago, Elle magazine released an investigation into psychological and physical abuse claims from four women against celebrity chef Jean Imbert— the one whose resting face is equal parts smug and mopey. He’s the guy who once played hooky from a generously paid gig with an airline, claiming he was sick but was instead partying with Pharrell in Miami. He’s also the guy in food who has been endlessly uplifted in spite of major question marks to his character.

I remember watching him rise up in the Paris food scene following his 2012 Top Chef win and thinking, there's something off with this guy but he'll do well. Sure enough, he's skyrocketed to food world success, enjoying all the largesse bestowed on bankable names—brand collabs and multiple positions as head chef at Palace hotel restaurants, including the Plaza Athénée and the Hotel Martinez in Cannes, where he was meant to oversee catering for the Cannes Film Festival in a few short weeks. Perhaps most importantly, he navigated the food scene for years with the trust and blind eye of the hospitality industry writ large. You can't tell me no one knew of his behavior.

Not even two weeks later, a separate incident with a different man. A young woman published a public statement accusing Hubert Niveleau, co-founder of the hyped Parisian restaurants Piccolo and Vecchio and someone she thought of as a friend, of drugging her without her knowledge at a private party on the premises. She filed a complaint on the grounds of chemical submission. Since then, other women have come forward, while Niveleau vehemently denies any wrongdoing.

Every time a #MeToo incident surfaces, particularly in industries I’m connected to in some way, I wrongly believe it will be the one that leads to lasting change; that men will finally learn. Most recently, I thought that following the horrors Dominique Pelicot inflicted on his wife. I think, maybe this time, the people with power around them will stop protecting men they know are predatory and potentially dangerous from the start. And every time, I’m reminded that money simply matters more than safety and integrity and that white men, especially, pay very few consequences in our world.

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IN MUCH BETTER FOOD NEWS….

Chizuko Kimura, Sushi Shunei Paris

After 40 years of working in French restaurants, Shunei Kimura opened his own restaurant in 2021 with the help of his wife, Chizuko Kimura. Sushi Shunei, a minimalist, ten-seater sushi restaurant in Montmartre, earned praise from locals and, in short order, from Michelin inspectors—nine months after opening, the restaurant earned its first star in the Michelin Guide 2022. Three months later, however, Chef Shunei passed away from cancer. Chizuko Kimura, a former tour guide who immersed herself in sushi’s ceremonial preparations to help her husband, kept on after his passing and surrounded herself with a team of respected sushi masters to assist her in picking up where he had left off. In March, the restaurant earned back their star— a first for a woman-run sushi establishment.

I am by no means a staunch supporter or a Michelin (see here) but given how masculine sushi counters remain around the world, this distinction awarded to the restaurant presided over by Chizuko Kimura* is symbolic.

*It is the restaurant, not the chef, that earns Michelin stars despite the language often used in media about these awards.

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WOMEN SCIENTISTS TO GET THEIR SPOTLIGHT

The names of 40 women scientists, such as Marie Curie, will soon be inscribed on the Eiffel Tower. Since its completion in 1889, the Eiffel Tower has seen 72 male scientists celebrated with their names inscribed in gold letters on the second floor. Gustave Eiffel himself wanted to celebrate the heralds of science and technology and that would have and should have extended to scientists such as Émilie du Châtelet, Sophie Germain and Marie Sklodowska-Curie.

Mayor Hidalgo, the President of the Société d'Exploitation de la Tour Eiffel (SETE), and the Femmes & Sciences organization have set up a scientific committee to redress the erasure. A bit about Project Hypatie, as the initiative as been called:

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IT’S CLIMATE CHANGE.

By now you’ve seen it on your social media feeds: the hailstorm and heavy rains that hit Paris on Saturday afternoon. It didn’t last long but the damage was swift.

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OTHER READS / NEWS

• On the billionaire who wants to Make France Great Again (I learned from

  Constance Dovergne
  that his investment firm Otium Capital backs the unfortunately-named but well-stocked skincare shops Oh My Cream so now I’m taking my money elsewhere).

• Having helped build a flagship arena for the Paris Olympics, foreign constructions workers were promised their papers. More than a year later, they’re still undocumented. This is unsurprising and profoundly unjust.

• I don’t know if, spiritually, I’m in the house meant for me but I’m glad Lenny Kravitz seems to be. What an over the top space in the 16th arrondissement. No it’s not his full time home but if he lives here half the year, that’s more than most of the 1% can claim for their second and third homes. Arch Digest by

  Dana Thomas

• French tube products that just might change your life (or at least be nice to look at). How to Get Lost in France

• French food is enjoying a renaissance – and these three recipes are culinary bliss, says the absolute legend Diana Henry in her column for The Telegraph. She also quoted me in this story and I’m still not over it.

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