After 35 years in Paimpol, this boat people, who became a Vietnamese restaurateur, is retiring

The Vietnamese restaurant located at the Goëlo roundabout, Paimpol (Côtes-d’Armor), closed its doors this Sunday January 5, 2025. At 61 years old, this boss takes his retirement after having run his establishment with his wife since 1989.

An institution in Paimpol

The restaurant benefits from a emplacement very coveted today, on a busy road, at the Goëlo roundabout.

We first started in a small premises, rue Saint-Vincent, in 1987. It was a precarious lease of 23 months. So, when I had the opportunity to move to a larger space, in 1989, I didn’t hesitate and I was right.

Open every day

At the time, the restaurateur joked that the roundabout did not exist, the street arrived in front of his door and there was still the railway line.

Pendant 35 anshe will offer his Vietnamese and Chinese specialties to the inhabitants of Paimpol and the surrounding area.

We were open every day, we had our regulars and people passing through during the tourist season. Now we will enjoy our retirement by traveling and taking care of our family. It was through contact with customers that I learned French.

The manager had several offers takeover for his restaurant with its well-located space, but he remains discreet about the follow-up that will be given to the place.

Van Dong with and sale all of its furniture and decoration, including paintings in lacquer of Vietnamese origin and chandeliers.

An epic journey to arrive in France

Van Dong Nguyen was born in 1964, in Saïgon. The youngest of seven children, he was eighteen when his mother wanted to protect him from the troubled times of war that the whole country was experiencing.

She wanted to remove me from compulsory military service. So she put me on a boat to the Filipinos. I remember the date well, it was October 23, 1982. There were 35 of us in a small boat sailing on the China Sea. We owed our survival only to a ship from Paimpol with a predestined name: Goëlo!

It was a cargo ship of theWestern Maritime Agencyconverted into a hospital ship to collect those called “the Boat-people ».

One of the first “boat people”

I stayed six months in a refugee camp in the Philippines, managed by the Red Cross. Then I was offered to go to another country. Some chose America or Germany. For me, it’s France because it’s the country that saved me when I was on my little boat.

With his refugee papers, he is pushed forward by the Red Cross the price of the ticket to come to France, 2,000 francs at the time.

He makes it a point of honor to repay from his first salary.

“I understand the heartbreak it must have been for my mother but at the same time, she saved my life! »

From Paris to Morlaix, Quimper and Paimpol

In 1983, he arrived at Paris and begins his apprenticeship to become a cook. It starts in a restaurant in Rennesthen to Morlaix. It is in this last city that he will meet his wife.

He developed his know-how in other businesses in Quimper and one day, a friend suggested the idea of ​​setting up in Paimpol.

And the rest, we know it.

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