My experience over 50 years of visiting France and 20 years living here I would concur with the BBC Item. 50 years ago even the smallest village seemed to have a Bistro Restaurant, a Boulangerie, at least one bar, a hairdresser, a Bucherie and a fair sprinkling of there shops. The village where I live now has a population of less than 2000. When I arrived here the village had all of these shops, now it has a mini-market, a pizza shop and one bar (It once had 4), no Doctor, no Pharmacie.
Surrounding villages have suffered the same way.
My village boasts a sign saying āActif et sportifā. More like dead and dying!
I heard a description of how empty space is from one of the Voyager team. He said that in the Oort cloud (a cloud of old debris at the edge of the solar system), each piece is on average 1AU apart, thatās 93 million miles. In addition if you take all the debris in the Oort cloud it would all fit into a sphere whose radius was the distance between the earth and the moon. Interstellar space is stupendously mind bogglingly bigger and has a very tiny tiny tiny fraction of the mass in it. Mainly itās monatomic hydrogen. I thought that was cool and drove it home appropriately.
Are you not in Lot? It would be a long way to come for lunch if so.
I shouldnāt really share as we grabbed the last two seats when we went last week, but this is the place: Google Maps
I mean, I criticise everything, it is in my DNA, but I couldnāt find any fault with this place at the price-point. Good honest food served with panache and warmth and everyone there seemed to be happily sharing in the secret. My friend has lived nearby for 45yrs and neither of us had even noticed this place before (it is not a road I use often but I will now).
But France in the 1970ās was very different to France today. In rural areas car ownership was the exception not the rule, much farming was still labour intensive so the population was only just starting to have to head into the cities to find work. Supermarkets had not started to make an impact on the landscape (they had barely begun to do so even in the UK) and large retail parks which need a car to reach had certainly not.
Once you have near 100% car ownership people no longer need the local shops so much.
Along the roadside outside and preceding the restaurant as you approach on that side of the road. Space is indeed limited, which I am sure is one reason I would estimate the percentage of truck drivers at around 20% of the clientele; less than I would otherwise have expected (but the limited space inside and need to arrive early is another). It was hammering down with rain when we visited (as it has been for the past 2 months almost).
True - because the factors that I mentioned are universal - people moving out of a rural economy which ceased to be able to employ most of them years ago, into cities to find work and the near universality of the car plus online delivery means that people do not need local facilities. Itās telling that the ones which remain are bars, hairdressers and restaurants and often not even those.
People donāt necessarily move far. If a lotissement opens up just outside of town, people will move there. The narrow closed-in houses in older villages donāt lend themselves to modernization. Families used to be able to live over the store, even large families. Now they want more space, indoors and out. But thereās no place in the village to work anymore, so they need a car to get to work, and itās handier and more affordable to stop at a supermarket on the way home rather than the tiny epicerie in the village, if it even exists anymore.
Today madame and I (having not done many lunches yet, still too cold!) strolled to a fish restaurant - packed, queued 20 minutes to get a table - it was quite tasty and seemed good value for the menu dejuener - 2 courses each (oysters was one), 2 warsteiners and carafe wine 54ā¬. Enjoyed on a warm sunny terrace (not rain!).
One of the reasons is that wannabe restaurateurs, with absolutely no business sense, have taken over successful restaurants, and within a year or less, they are bankrupt. Case in point, in my local village in Mayenne, the once thriving bar/resto has had no less than SIX proprietors in TEN years! Most of them were clueless. The good ones just upped sticks and went elsewhere. Nowadays, the commune has it for Mayoral meetings, and the odd event. A very sad state of affairs, as it used to be the heart of the village. I suspect this is not the only village with a defunct watering hole.
In Cussy the āvillageā has just re-opened one of the bars that closed and became a private home some years ago. The English couple that owned it had kept the bar intact so it was an easy transformation, plus they were starting to do (fried, easy) food. Iām hoping something better will come out of this.
Obviously the problem with any business, be it resto, corner shop or hotel is that it must make money. No good to have a nice idea but no clue how a business runs.
Volcanic, I was going to write about our restaurant experiences in the Mayenne but thought Iād start with the Perche. Where are you in the Mayenne, if you donāt mind my asking? You donāt need to be specific. I hope youāre not near the river because I see that itās way way up at the moment.
Anyway, the area of France that we know most about is the Perche, which at first we thought was the land time forgot. Itās an area of manor houses from the 16th century. The area is mostly agricultural. It doesnāt have much industry and what it does have is fairly well hidden. Bucolic is the word that comes to mind.
When we first visited, there were a few good restaurants. But the area is within one to two hoursā drive from Paris and its growing popularity with Parisians meant that there was an increasing demand for good restaurants.
Even covid gave the restaurant scene a boost, since more Parisians bought second homes or even moved there. New restaurants keep opening up, some of them with Parisian chefs. Value for money is not a real concern for most of their customers.
But several of the restaurants we first loved in 2007 are still going strong, serving excellent food at reasonable prices. We usually get lunch for two between 50 and 60 euro.
The story sounded well done; the journalist interviewed and had translated a number of sources and got to basic reasons ā both economic and cultural ā for the change. Apparently there were two main drivers: the Covid period and Inflation, which was pretty fierce in 2022. The statistics have been proven; there is definitely a diminution of eateries, despite new openings. The challenge is great to new restauranteurs, but some may happen to open in an area where the economic climate matched with the ingenuity of the restaurant owners results in a successful combination and VOILA!
