50 years later, France’s last newspaper Hawks achieved success

He is the last newspaper eagle in France. Perhaps the last in Europe.

Ali Akbar has smashed the pavement on the left bank of Paris for more than 50 years, with the documents under his arm and the latest title being his lips.

Now, he will be officially recognized for his contribution to French culture. President Emmanuel Macron, once a student himself bought newspapers from Mr. Akbar, will be decorated next month with a Merit Order (one of France’s highest honors).

“In 1973, when I started here, there were 35 or 40 vendors in Paris,” he said. “Now I’m alone.

“It’s getting too discouraged. Everything is digital now. People just want to consult their phone calls.”

Today, Mr. Akbar can tour through the stylish Cafés in the Cafés, hoping to sell about 30 copies of Le Monde. He kept half of the sale price, but no return refunds.

Before returning to the internet, he will sell 80 copies in the first hour of the newspaper’s afternoon publication.

“In the past, people would squeeze paper around me. Now, I have to chase customers and try selling a newspaper,” he said.

Not that the decline in trade would bother Mr. Akbar remotely, Akbar said he had been working for the pure joy of 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 this.”

The 72-year-old thrives is a familiar and beloved figure in the neighborhood. One woman said: “I first came here in the 1960s and I grew up. He was like a brother.”

“He knows everyone. He’s interesting,” another said.

Ali Akbar was born in Rawalpindi and traveled to Europe in the late 1960s, first reaching Amsterdam, where he worked on the cruise liner. In 1972, the ship was docked in the French city of Rouen, and a year later he was in Paris. He obtained residence documents in the 1980s.

“I wasn’t a hippie back then, but I knew a lot of hippie,” he said with a smile.

“When I was on my way to Europe in Afghanistan, I landed with a group trying to get me to smoke marijuana.

“I told them I’m sorry, but my mission to live, sleep in Kabul next month!”

In his former intellectual hub, he had to know celebrities and writers. Elton John once bought milky white tea at Brasserie Lipp. Selling papers before the prestigious scientific university, he was familiar with generations of future politicians, such as President Macron.

So what has changed in the legendary Le Monde community since he first took a copy of Le Monde and whipped it At the auction (call out)?

“The atmosphere is different,” he lamented. “There were publishers and writers everywhere, as well as actors and musicians. The place had souls. But now it was just a tourist town.

He said, “The soul is gone.” But he smiled like him.