Hi all,
Sorry for the late sending, I started this letter yesterday instead of this week-end and couldn’t make it for this morning. So here I am, and I’m going to say something simple:
Please start a place outside of Paris (or any other big cities)
Not because Paris is dead. Paris will be fine, big cities will be fine. Paris always finds a way to complain beautifully, charge eight euros for coffee, and still be full.
But because territories deserve your energy too.
I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately, probably because more and more of my own life is moving between places that are not supposed to be the center. Brittany. Small towns. Roads. Harbors. Industrial zones. Corners where you don’t expect much until someone decides to care properly.
And every time, I see the same thing.
There is space.
There is need.
There is beauty.
There are people.
There is often much more potential than the usual creative map allows us to see.
But for some reason, when people dream about opening a place, they still often dream through the same coordinates. Big cities. Known neighborhoods. Places where visibility feels easier and validation arrives faster.
I get it. Big cities gives you audience, press, density, clients, investors, friends who can come to the opening and pretend they discovered you before everyone else.
But outside big cities, something else can happen.
A place can matter faster.
Not because it becomes trendy. Because it becomes useful.
In a smaller territory, a good café, a smart restaurant, a tiny hotel, a workspace, a bakery, a listening room, a bookshop with proper coffee, whatever you want to build, can become more than a business. It can become a signal. A reason to stop. A reason to stay. A reason for locals to feel proud and for outsiders to look twice.
That’s powerful.
And maybe we should stop treating territories like secondary markets.
They are not secondary.
They are just under-served by ambition.
In the paid version, I want to talk about how cool places can empower a territory. Not by arriving like missionaries of good taste, please no. But by becoming local infrastructure. By creating rhythm, pride, jobs, attention, and connections.
Because a good place outside Paris doesn’t just serve people.
It can change the way a territory sees itself.
