The last newspaper, France newspaper, gets the entitlement order after 50 years

It is the last discourse in a newspaper in France. Perhaps the last in Europe.

Ali Akbar was bombing the left bank sidewalk in Paris for more than 50 years, and under the arm on his lips the latest title.

Now it must be officially recognized for its contribution to French culture. President Emmanuel Macron – who has previously bought as a student of the newspapers from Mr. Akbar – is his adornment next month with a matter of merit, one of the highest honors in France.

“When I started here in 1973, there were 35 or 40 street vendors in Paris,” he says. “Now I am alone.

“It has become very frustrated. Everything is now digital. People just want to consult their phones.”

These days, in his tours through modern Saint-Lgemain cafes, Master can hope to sell about 30 copies of LE Monde. He keeps half of the sale price, but it does not get returns for returns.

Again before the Internet, he was selling 80 copies within the first hour of the post this afternoon.

He says: “On the old days, people were gathering around me looking for the paper. Now I have to chase customers to try to sell one.”

This decrease in trade disturbs Mr. Akbar, who says he continues to go to the tremendous joy in the job.

“I am a happy person. I am free. With this job, I am completely independent. No one gives me orders. That’s why I do it.”

The 72 -year -old is a familiar and beloved character in the neighborhood. “I came here for the first time in the 1960s and grew up with Ali. It is like a brother,” says a woman.

Another says: “He knows everyone. It is fun.”

Ali Akbar was born in Rawalbende, Pakistan, made his way to Europe in the late 1960s, and first arrived in Amsterdam, where he got a work on a cruise.

In 1972, the ship was established in the French city of Rawan, and a year later it was in Paris. He obtained his residence papers in the eighties.

“I, I was not a hobby at the time, but I knew a lot of hippies.”

“When I was in Afghanistan on my way to Europe, I fell with a group I tried to make me smoke hashish.

“I told them sorry, but I had a task in life, and the next month was not sleeping in Kabul!”

In the intellectual axis once in Saint -Germain, he got an interview with celebrities and writers. Tun John bought a milky tea in Brasseri Lip. And the sale of papers to the prestigious University of Science, was aware of generations of future politicians-such as President Macron.

How did the legendary left bank changed since it carried for the first time a copy of LE Monde and its skin At auction (With a shout)?

“The atmosphere is not the same,” sorry. “At that time, there were publishers and writers everywhere-and actors and musicians. The place had a soul. But it is now just a tourist town.

“The soul has gone,” he says, but he laughs as he does.