May Chabène, née Chibani, standing in Alexi 20. (Credit: Anne Ilcinkas/ L'Orient-Le Jour)
"I'm a miracle! They put four stents in me!" May Chabène says in her lilting voice. Just steps from Paris's Père Lachaise cemetery, the door of Alexi 20 opens onto a beaming smile and an accent blending Dakar, Beirut, and Paris.At 84, the owner of this deli-grocery in the 20th arrondissement is already back behind the counter, barely out of the hospital after spending three weeks there following a heart attack. "I don't have much time, I have to get the buffet ready before the clients arrive," she says, clearly happy to have regained her energy and bearings. Read more Opening of Ilayya in downtown Beirut On Jan. 6, when we first passed through the glass door of Alexi 20, she was already busy stocking her counter, after having just had some water blessed at church for Epiphany. "Since January 1,...
"I'm a miracle! They put four stents in me!" May Chabène says in her lilting voice. Just steps from Paris's Père Lachaise cemetery, the door of Alexi 20 opens onto a beaming smile and an accent blending Dakar, Beirut, and Paris.At 84, the owner of this deli-grocery in the 20th arrondissement is already back behind the counter, barely out of the hospital after spending three...
