Bistro des Philosophes, Aix-en-Provence – credit Mali Desha, Unsplash
With the help of the mayor and local council, a small town in Burgundy has saved its local cafe-bistro, what’s been described as the “heart” of the rural French economy and society.
Au Bon Accueil, located in the commune of Saint-Martin-sur-Ouanne, had closed recently for 8 months, giving a nasty shock to locals who realized they had lost their last streetside business after the boulangerie closed some years ago.
Both Hervé Chapuis, Saint-Martin’s village chief, and the county mayor, stepped in to ensure that this most treasured local institution—disappearing all over France—would remain well-anchored inside their town.
“It’s so important to have a cafe-bistro in a village like this. We couldn’t let it stay closed,” Nadia Letellier, the new manager, told the Guardian’s Kim Whillsher on the occasion of her visit to the village. “And we’re doing well, as you can see. People seem really happy it’s open again.”
Fixed menu 3-course meals are common lunch and dinner functions for the locals, who often sit in the same seat and order the same thing every day while catching up with one another, and to get out of the house.
It’s a critical function in the depopulated French countryside, but one which Willsher reports is disappearing rapidly.
A cafe-bistro might close for any number of reasons, like declining alcohol consumption, 2% year-over-year price inflation established as a target by the French and European central banks, declining rural populations, or senior owners retiring with no one to take over after them. These have brought about a dramatic reduction in the number of cafe-bistros across France; Willsher reports it as a reduction from 500,000 to just 40,000 over the last 125 years.
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Fortunately, in Charny-Orée-de-Puisaye, the administrative district in which Saint-Martin can be found, the mayor ran a bistro for 7 years before being elected this year. He channeled €25,000 of public money to pay for renovations to ensure the bistro—which used to be called the Station Cafe—could stay open.
“I noticed the same people would come in every morning at the same time, take the same table, the same coffee or a glass of white wine,” he told Willsher. “The cafe-bistro was their point of reference. If it disappears, there is nothing for them.”
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Au Bon Accueil was not the first local eatery to be saved by the mayor, whose local authority owns another bistro, a restaurant, and 3 boulangeries.
It’s often said ‘you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone.’ Fortunately for Saint-Martin, there are enough bistro-less villages in France to show how important these places are for the fabric of rural society to those that are lucky enough to still have them.
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