PEOPLE

Talk About Change!

France has an unlikely new politician. Jean-Marc Restoux, a homeless man from the streets of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, will run for mayor of Paris in the March 9 elections.


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France has an unlikely new politician. Jean-Marc Restoux, a homeless man from the streets of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, will run for mayor of Paris in the March 9 elections. For more than 20 years, Restoux, 54, has trolled for cash between Café de Flore and Les Deux Magots, and he claims to enjoy enough support in the posh 6th arrondissement to expect a citywide electoral impact. He’s created a stir in the press and is popular at his regular perch, next to a newsstand, where he seems to greet half the pedestrians by name. The focus of his platform: poverty. “My strength is my notoriety,” says Restoux. “And in the streets, I have learned a lot about people and dialogue.”

Restoux: Stephane Feugere