A die-off of France’s iconic cafés is prompting a 150 million-euro rescue plan for 1,000 of them, in small villages where their decline is most keenly felt. johnleicester reports
HOLD FOR STORY SLUGGED FRANCE DEATH OF THE BISTROT BY JOHN LEICESTER - This photo taken Monday, Sept.16, 2019 shows closed bar in Hasparren, southwestern France. A mass die-off of France's bars, from 200,000 in 1960 to 36,000 now, fed into the sense of isolation and abandonment that was a driving force behind the so-called "yellow vest" protest movement that rocked France this year.
“Losing the cafe was a tough blow,” says the mayor, Gilles Pairin. “I believe in the virtues of cafes. Most of all, I believe in places where people can meet each other.”, from 200,000 to fewer than 40,000 in a half-century, is depriving the French of cozy watering-holes where they’ve gathered for generations — not merely for perk-me-up espressos, crusty morning croissants, and beer and wine late into the night but, most importantly, for company to keep solitude at bay.
This “real territorial fracture,” as Borello puts it, between hopping cities and torpid towns and villages was dramatically exposed by the so-calledLegions of demonstrators in fluorescent jackets converged on the capital from the provinces for successive weekends during the months of often-violent upheaval that could yet flare again. Their complaints over taxation, wages, retreating public services and other issues painted the government in Paris as being chronically out of touch.
“The simple fact of doing things together sometimes rekindles hope,” he said in an interview with The Associated Press. “Clearly, the need to meet other people, to chat with other people, was also at the heart of those troubles,” Borello acknowledged. With just 1,800 inhabitants, Port-Brillet in northwestern France had four watering holes when Yann Mustière, now 41, was in his twenties.
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