L'Express to Honour Late Owner Colette Brossoit

It takes pluck and prescience to open a restaurant that feels timeless at the very outset but that, in essence, is what Colette Brossoit did with L'Express in 1980.

Now, the restaurant has lost the woman veteran barman Claude Masson calls "the pillar" of the indelible bistro on rue Saint-Denis.

Here, translated, is the official statement from L'Express on the death of the longtime owner who, memorably, wrote the restaurant's menus by hand.

Colette Brossoit 1951 - 2014

Colette will not return to L'Express.

Colette Brossoit invented this mythical place. She was its discreet soul and steward. Her bright and inspiring presence will live on at L'Express forever. Her intelligence, sound judgment, wisdom, sense of humour and wit touched everyone.
 
Without Colette, we are orphaned and our world will be a little less civilized.
 
Her friends and relatives are invited to pay tribute to Colette one last time at L'Express on Monday, June 9, from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

· L'Express [Official Site]
· Eater Interviews: Claude Masson of L'Express [-EMTL-]