France’s famed cafe culture is in deep crisis, forcing rural bars to defend their role as the hub of village life with services like theater, groceries or wireless Internet.
In the Breton hamlet of Sainte Anne du Houlin, Joel Hamard invites professional story tellers to his bar, the “Couleur Cafe,” to entertain customers who can also enjoy a bowl of soup made from local produce.
“When I first came here, the old people in the village would say this used to be a really lively place and I wanted to recreate that,” he said.
PHOTO: AFP
“You have to be open to everyone in a bar today, including children. It’s the only way you can hope to survive,” he said.
As in countless other villages, the cafe in Sainte Anne du Houlin plays a key social role as the only place where people can meet up regularly.
“In the hamlet it’s all there is,” Hamard said.
PHOTO: AFP
Judging by reactions to the story evening, Hamard’s gamble has paid off.
“I really liked it. It was funny, really enjoyable. A rich universe,” said Matthieu Boucher who had driven three quarters of an hour to join the show’s audience of children, grandparents and adults of all ages.
Local councilor Elisabeth Reperant said the bar had given a much needed boost to village life.
“We are in a rural area and we don’t have many places for young people to go. There is an event every weekend and on weekdays too in the summer. It’s definitely an advantage for us,” she said.
It’s a similar story elsewhere in Brittany.
In the picturesque port of La Roche Bernard, bar owner Eric Gerardin has organized an evening of improvisational theater, with local actors playing to peals of laughter.
“For me a cafe is a lively, dynamic place. It’s a forum. A village square,” Gerardin said.
Gerardin and Hamard are members of “Cafe de Pays Bretagne,” a network of 30 bars and cafes that offer cultural events like theater, concerts, art exhibitions and debates, as well as food made from local produce.
“It’s crucial for me to be in a network. Having a recognizable label helps the bar’s image and it also allows me to meet with colleagues and exchange ideas and experiences,” Gerardin said.
There is no denying the scale of the problem facing France’s cafes, however — particularly in rural areas.
Industry figures show that there were more than 200,000 cafes and bars in France in 1960. Today there are fewer than 30,000. And the current financial crisis has hit survivors hard. The average French bar saw its turnover drop 12 percent last year.
Authorities are so worried about the decline of cafe culture that this year the French senate hosted a major crisis conference in Paris.
“Cafes must offer a variety of services,” Minister for Rural Development Michel Mercier said. “And what is right for rural areas is also the case for towns and cities.”
Live entertainment is just one way rural bars are attempting to heed the minister’s call. Other establishments offer Internet services such as wireless hot spots in a bid to attract younger Web-savvy customers.
“Cafes must not be disconnected from the world their customers live in. An Internet terminal isn’t enough,” Patrick Villemin, secretary-general of Heineken France, told the Paris conference.
“A 20-year-old needs to be able to use their smartphone. Wi-Fi access is the minimum you need,” Villemin said.
France’s bar owners list many reasons why things are going so badly.
People prefer to stay at home and watch television instead of going out; new laws ban smoking in public places; there are tough drink driving limits and crippling business taxes.
Critics argue, meanwhile, that cafes should make a greater effort to keep their prices down.
Maryan Kujawa, who runs a small bar that survives thanks to help from the local council in the small village of Saint Symphorien near the Breton capital Rennes, accepts this up to a point.
“It’s the breweries who hold the key to the problem,” he said. “Every year they increase the price of their beer and we are forced to pass that on to the customer.”
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique