It’s lunch time. A mouth-watering aroma of zucchini and sautéed onions wafts through the air. However, there is no restaurant at the foot of the high brick walls of Saint-Michel, a former prison that looks like a fortified castle.
Just a bike and, in tow, a stainless steel griddle: Kamel Secraoui prepares croque-monsieur there, with crispy “real bread”.
By the enticed smell, a group is formed. Backpacks or satchels fall from the shoulders, the time for a gourmet break for a dozen homeless people who have come there by word of mouth.
Her fox terrier on a leash, Bénédicte, 50, whose life as a home ironer changed after a violent attack, likes to “warm her heart a little”.
“There’s taste! It’s a change” from the usual food distributions, revels in Mehdi, 46. Dismissed from a recycling center for having refused the vaccine against covid, he has lived on the street since January, for lack of being able to pay rent.
– Create a link, share –
Kamel Secraoui, also 46, intends to “create a link with people who are not used to it, who have little attention” in order to “humanize the city through simple gestures, shared moments” .
Coming from a family of six children, whose Kabyle father had come from Algeria to work at the AZF fertilizer factory – which exploded in 2001 killing 30 and injuring more than 8,000 – this Stade Toulousain fan was born on 28 May 1976 in the Pink City.
He grew up in the heart of the popular city of Mirail, inspired by the generosity of the women around him: his mother, two sisters, a grandmother who “was not the richest, quite the contrary, but the little she had, she shared it”.
Founder of the KLD Design agency, selected for several biennials including Venice in 2018, he creates colorful signage, objects and furniture for communities or individuals.
About fifty of his benches with graphic lines, baptized “Naelou” – from the first names of his children Naël and Lou – thus adorn parks and sidewalks in different cities, or private gardens.
Their particularity: “via the naelou.com page, people send their messages which will be punched there”, at the rate of one euro per word, or for free when it is, for example, a gift from a retirement home to its residents.
Known as Chat Maigre for his street art works, the designer made headlines in 2006 by clandestinely brightening up a speed camera with legos. “The prefect had the radar removed and summoned me. He was surprised that people were asking him to put it back,” he recalls laughing.
– Humanitarian grand prize –
The idea of the plancha bike arose during confinement: “We were enjoying grilling with my family and I was thinking of people on the street”. He designs, then manufactures with a metalworker a “hygienic and functional” plancha.
An association was born, the Plancha Social Club, which recently received the gold medal of the Humanitarian Grand Prize of France. A few volunteers got involved, such as Halima Benaissa, 64, a retired social mediator who “helps, accompanies, discusses” with the guests.
Animator at the municipality’s social restaurant, Houria Chikah, 49, has been there since the start at the end of 2021. “It’s fun, warm and we take the time to exchange”, she appreciates.
If Kamel Secraoui dreams of rallying more people so that the plancha bike is not dependent on his professional commitments and “runs more than once or twice a week”, he does not intend to stop there.
His new idea: a competition for young people attracted to graphic design, but without money to study it. “The best will decorate the Toulouse metro, in partnership with the operator Tisséo, and thus show their talent.”
The designer knows this ground: in 2008 he had, in all legality, adorned with stickers eight elevators and a station. “I like the city and see it differently, in color”, explains Kamel Secraoui, eager today to “really give a smile, by sharing”.
