Inside the Flag of Loyalty, there is a comforting mix of sugar and frying. Few small tables and plenty of books. Leaning against the bar, a regular customer wearing a glittery banana drinks a Coca-Cola while chatting with the owner, Mr. Quan's son. He took over the shop in 2017. So when someone asks his father, sitting in the left corner of the shop to have a full view: "And you, are you enjoying retirement?" he answers with a smile: "- Me? I live upstairs. But every morning, I am here, I open and clean until noon and then I go up to rest. I come down at three o'clock to watch the shop while he does errands," he says, pointing at his son.
The Flag of Loyalty, birthplace of "humanitarian capitalism," why? "Because I am loyal to the flag of humanitarian capitalism!"The expression can question, or even prompt a smile from the most cynical. It is him who invented the concept, which he summarizes as "working and caring for others". It is "the sun, against communism, the star, the night!" Mr. Quan has written five books. He develops the concept of humanitarian capitalism in a book with the same name and in "A Better World" (self-published). He takes out his books from a plastic bag, carefully arranged in layers under a pack of burger buns, and offers them for sale in his shop.
I ask him if he has ever returned to Vietnam. "If I go back, it's not to live there, it's to make a revolution!" he says. He exclaims with a big smile, missing a few teeth. Mr. Quan studied philosophy in Saigon until 1975 when the communists came to power and expelled foreigners. So his French wife had to leave the country, and he would go with her. Without papers, he ended up doing several odd jobs and couldn't work as a professor. So it became the factory. He worked in a pharmacy during the day and took out the hotel's garbage at night. For five years, he saved until he could afford his first restaurant in Pierrefitte. Then he sold it and stumbled upon this address in the 15th arrondissement. It was 1984, and he planted the flag of loyalty at 21 rue Copreaux.
A customer drinks a beer at the Flag of Loyalty © Thomas Reka
The walls and furniture have always been filled with books. Mr. Quan didn't read much when he arrived in France, who can work two jobs day and night and finish a book? So these books are on display, reminders of his former job at the national library of Saigon. Around us, there are great classics of French literature, cherished by students who also gather for one of the cheapest bo bun in the capital, immersing themselves in the memories of the place and the people who make it.
The Flag of Fidelity
21, rue Copreaux - 15th.
