Page 32 - AT

A32 FEATURE
Thursday 26 sepTember 2019

Perk up: France resuscitates dying villages 1 cafe at a time

By JOHN LEICESTER with online tax returns and
Associated Press other paperwork.
PARIS (AP) — For the ru- Although Borello doesn’t
ral French village of Port- say so outright, people
Brillet, the closure of its last with cafes to go to might
cafe came as a painful perhaps feel less of an
shock. urge to head back to
Suddenly gone was the makeshift camps that
haunt where patrons put popped up on town
the world to rights over and village roundabouts
a drink or three, where across France during the
anglers propping up the yellow vest movement.
bar could crow about The camps had both a
their catches from nearby political role, as visible
lakes, and where the vil- hotspots of protest, and a
lage mayor liked to play social one, with demon-
table football with friends. strators gathering around
The demise of Le P’tit Bar, campfires to share gripes,
the local newspaper la- beers, barbecue sausag-
mented, robbed Port-Brill- es and make friends.
et of “a bit of its soul.” “Clearly, the need to
“Losing the cafe was a meet other people, to
tough blow,” says the A closed cafe is pictured in Roubaix, northern France, Tuesday Sept.17, 2019. chat with other people,
mayor, Gilles Pairin. “I be- Associated Press was also at the heart of
lieve in the virtues of ca- plan for 1,000 of them. tween hopping cities and alone, will assuage yellow those troubles,” Borello
fes. Most of all, I believe in It is focusing on small vil- torpid towns and villages vest tempers. acknowledged.
places where people can lages off the beaten track was dramatically exposed But reopening cafes in vil- Employees at the Paris
meet each other.” where the shuttering of by the so-called “yellow lages that lost them will, headquarters of Borello’s
A mass die-off of France’s cafes is often a drama be- vest” protest movement he argues, help combat Groupe SOS are sifting
iconic cafes , from 200,000 cause the closures leave that erupted last Novem- social isolation, providing through letters from may-
to fewer than 40,000 in a inhabitants with few, if ber and rocked Macron’s inhabitants with places to ors proposing their villages
half-century, is depriving any, alternative places to presidency. meet and kindle friend- for one of the 1,000 cafes
the French of cozy water- socialize. Legions of demonstra- ships, and “little by little re- and from people volun-
ing-holes where they’ve For Jean-Marc Borello, tors in fluorescent jackets storing life to a village and teering to run them. The
gathered for generations who was one of Macron’s converged on the capital connecting it to the rest of cafe managers will get
— not merely for perk-me- teachers when the future from the provinces for suc- the world.” business training, while
up espressos, crusty morn- leader of France was a cessive weekends during “The simple fact of doing “villagers will decide on
ing croissants, and beer student at Paris’ presti- the months of often-vio- things together sometimes the name and we’ll de-
and wine late into the gious Sciences Po univer- lent upheaval that could rekindles hope,” he said in cide on the decor togeth-
night but, most important- sity, saving cafes isn’t only yet flare again. Their an interview with The As- er,” Borello said.
ly, for company to keep a social mission. It’s also complaints over taxation, sociated Press. Groupe SOS aims to inau-
solitude at bay. an effort to respond to the wages, retreating public Borello wants the new gurate the first new or res-
The social-glue role of ca- bubbling grievances in services and other issues locales to be super- cued cafe before the end
fes as places where the swaths of France that peo- painted the government charged versions of the of the year.
French mingle, find friend- ple who live away from in Paris as being chroni- traditional French bistrot. Changing French demo-
ship and sometimes love, the bright lights of Paris cally out of touch. As well as the usual bev- graphics and habits con-
squabble, mourn and and other cities are being Borello, who heads a erages, snacks and bet- tributed to the die-off of
celebrate, is seen as be- left behind, deprived of large French nonprofit ting slips, they could also cafes. Village kids moved
ing so vital for the national public services, fast and with an annual turnover of offer essentials that aren’t to towns for work; and
well-being that a mentor reliable communications 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) always close at hand in highways and France’s
and political ally of Presi- and opportunities for both from a palette of activities out-of-the-way areas, in- super-fast network of TGV
dent Emmanuel Macron work and play. in healthcare, childcare cluding bread, groceries, trains pinched off towns’
is launching a 150-million This “real territorial frac- and other fields, doesn’t internet access and post- through-traffic that kept
euro ($165 million) rescue ture,” as Borello puts it, be- claim that rescuing cafes, al services, and even help bistrots in business.
As wine consumption
plummeted and smoking
was banned, the once-
common sight of men
starting their days with
“ballons de rouge” —
glasses of red — in smoke-
filled bars increasingly
became a memory. And
instead of shopping at
village markets, fortifying
themselves in cafes be-
fore and after filling their
baskets with produce,
families instead drove to
A closed cafe named “Cafe du Siecle” is seen in Pontcharra- A closed cafe is pictured in Roubaix, northern France, Tuesday out-of-town supermarkets
sur-Turdine, central France, Monday, Sept. 16, 2019. Sept.17, 2019.
Associated Press Associated Press for weekly groceries.q