Portrait of a bobo + Test: Are you a bobo?
The world has hipsters, Paris has bobos. But what exactly is a bobo? And are you a bobo? Let’s find out.
The archetypes of gauche caviar
The term comes from “bourgeois bohemian,” though there’s probably nothing bohemian about today’s bobos. Rather, they are champagne socialists (or gauche caviar in French) who have their hearts on the left but their wallets on the right (politically speaking). Like the hipster, the bobo began as a counterculture but has long since become mainstream.
Bobos tend to stick to certain neighborhoods, preferably in the east of Paris and its suburbs, migrating with gentrification and always looking for the best cultural offerings. You can easily spot them by their thrifty outfits that clash with their expensive gadgets – although they want to play poor, they won’t pass up the latest iPhone or trade in their factory-fresh BMW for a beat-up Citroën.
From Belleville to Montreuil
As you explore different neighborhoods, look for organic food stores like Bio’c’Bon, third-wave coffee shops and small artisanal boutiques and you’ll know you’re probably in bobo territory, which stretches from Belleville to Montreuil, from Pigalle to Batignolles, from Jaurès to Pantin.
As we’ve seen, bobos are full of contradictions. And their attitude toward the environment is no exception. On the one hand, they pride themselves on being ecolo, always on the lookout for fair trade labels and buying local, and on the other hand, they happily jet off to the Maldives for a much-needed break from their stressful law, graphic design or PR jobs.
Test: Are you a bobo?
To find out if you are a Bobo, answer the following questions truthfully:
- Do you usually buy your groceries at the farmer’s market, an organic grocery store or, for some mysterious reason, at Monoprix?
- Does more than half of your wardrobe come from a friperie (second-hand store)?
- Do you enjoy lecturing others about their way of life, especially their non-organic diet, their sweatshop clothes or their political stance?
- Is the bicycle your preferred mode of transportation?
- Have you attended at least three art openings in the past month?
- Do you mainly hang out in the following arrondissements? 9, 10, 11, 17, 18, 19, 20, or even better, one of the northern or eastern banlieues?
- Is brunch one of your favorite weekend activities?
- Do you use a lot of Anglicisms (if your first language isn’t English)?
- When you eat out, do you almost exclusively eat in restaurants that call their cuisine bistronomie and serve natural wine?
If you answered oui to more than five of these questions, we hate to break it to you, but you are, in fact, what is known as a bobo.
Find the bobos’ favorite hangouts
One more thing about bobos: wherever they go, it inevitably becomes trendy. If you want to follow in their footsteps and find the latest hotspots (we’re not talking about the ones you see plastered all over social media; by that point, a place is already passé), get your personalized digital Paris guide here and mention your request in the comments.
