Le Comptoir General, Paris

Go past the dimly lit hallway with the dusty red carpet and chandeliers, wave to the uniformed night watchman, and enter the motley world that is the General’s Counter. Everything, the hanging vines, the stuffed tropical birds, the worn upholstery, seems to evoke nostalgia for the past and yearning for the exotic. In the daytime, the Comptoir Général is a collective space dedicated to community outreach programs, solidarity and environmental initiatives, where schoolchildren are ushered in the cluttered but sunlit hall to listen to stories and songs from Mali. At night, it becomes the haunt of the bohemian-bourgeois, trendy and shabby with that Caribbean flair that will have you convinced you are spending the night in Havana.

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