Last Tuesday, while returning from Montauban we stopped off in Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val in order to buy a shirt. This is an annual ritual that involves buying another indigo-dyed long sleeved shirt for the winter (currently have four, each one a different shade).
However, coming to the point of the thread, so to speak, normally we go on a Sunday, to also take in the weekly market, which is picturesque, but very tourist orientated in terms of what’s on sale and prices. By contrast last Tuesday, while good for shirt buying was useless for basic food shopping. I hadn’t noticed a butcher in the place and so enquired at the Tourist Office. The young assistant looked very surprised when I responded that I was looking for a proper boucherie not a bit of meat in a plastic tray.
Undeterred we set out to buy a sandwich for lunch - first stop a dreadful dépôt de pain, second stop an ‘artisanal épicerie’ where I chose my bread and the assistant hand sliced some ham and emmental, then had a demi of micro-brewery IPA in the main square - very pretty and idyllic (also unexpectedly bumped into a neighbour who was on her way down to Spain in her camping-car). Took our sandwiches with us and stopped off at Villeneuve d’Aveyron and ate them on a bench overlooking the surrounding countryside. Shortly afterwards got familiar sensations of the indigestion that I associate with bread bought at Pauls concessions in aires - bloody rising agents!
Spent the rest of the journey home reflecting that the several plus beaux villages around us tend to have decent(ish) restos but are crap for buying decent fresh food. Conversely our best local food shops are in very ordinary (or in one case architecturally hideous) villages. Obvious in some respects, but still interesting - the difference between the two. I can buy a beautiful shirt or a demi of micro-brewery IPA, or a decent wood-fired oven pizza; but not a piece of bread that’s worthy of the name.
Its happening everywhere now, end of the village shops that ran for generations. Rising costs, rising social charges and wages, big supermarkets that are cheaper for folks trying to make ends meet and so on and on and on…you know the rest of the story. I live on the edge of a small town and even the local fish shop has been advertised for sale for over a year now, the main boulangerie has shut and other various shops have whitewashed windows. Those edge of town “industrial” boulangeries are taking over more and more. We had a market here on saturdays, quite a nice one but not huge and now its two vans only - one selling roasted chickens etc and the other some charcuterie and cheeses. All a sign of the times that what we loved about living in France is changing, and not for the better either.
TBH I don’t think I’ve seen that kind of France in the food since the 1990s, probably my fault for going to touristy places for so long and only now settling in rural France after everything has closed down.
Sorry to read about what’s happening to your village. Here it’s the reverse, despite being a popular tourist area. Most local villages are old and pleasant, without being plus beau. Also the Lot Valley and its surrounding plateau are important cattle farming and cheese making areas so there are many good local markets. What struck me about St Antonin was that even though I was still in the Aveyron, I could buy good quality leisure clothing, or eat in a pretty good resto, yet couldn’t just buy good quality, simple, basic food items
We’re in one of the most popular French tourist areas, but the principal emphasis remains on good quality local food rather than indigo-dyed shirts, or micro-brewery draught IPA (or ee-pay-ah, though I do like the ‘ah’ at the end - ‘ee-pay’ followed by an ‘aah’ of satisfaction…).
Yesterday at the market in Decazeville (a former mining town) queueing to collect my pre-ordered half dozen fresh duck legs for confiting (<< Les cuisses des Anglais de Laroque ! >>) several tourists in front of me were spending a hundred euros plus on foie gras, saucisson de canard, magret de canard, while locals were more likely to be buying buying cheap gesiers de canard et manchons confités. Not a pretty town, but everyone knows it’s a bloody good market
I’m constantly surprised that here, where according to official statistics we’re a pretty piss poor area, we just don’t see this. Our village is tiny and can’t really support much commerce but we now have a weekly evening market which is very popular and people come from all around. The neighbouring slightly larger village has recently added a doctors, a dentist and a large physiotherapist practice - where I go. The boulangerie, previously pretty run down, has been bought by a young woman who’s bread is fantastic and who’s cakes are even better. I just don’t see ‘run down’, I see the opposite.
Edit: I have to say, what’s happening in our village is entirely down to our Maire who has been in I guess about two years now (?). In that time, he’s sorted out the finances from in debt to in surplus, improved the commune social life enormously and improved the two villages that make up the commune. He is a local born young person of a local family with a lot of passion.
I think you’re right about good restauration vs good food shops; I’d not noticed it before. But we have a great and enthusiastic butcher (last time, we had a choice between goose and pork rillettes); an indoor market with - one day a week - a cheese stall that seems to go on forever; an excellent café which sells a variety of beans and roasts.
However, most of the restaurants are pizzerias, only one being of reasonable quality. And a Kiosque à Pizza and a pizza automat.
The kebab place, meanwhile, has moved to much grander premises in the same town.
Same here. Our town/village is staggeringly ordinary (and largely destroyed by Allied bombing so not attractive) However, he’s encouraged young people to start businesses here and the whole place feels very alive and healthy. The much more popular, and beautiful, neighbouring town is dying on its feet…
One of the reasons I moved to our relatively beau village was the shop/bar/tabac. The lady owner ran it single-handedly seven days a week, albeit only half days on Sundays and Mondays. It had a good selection of quality fresh foods, fine baking supplied by her brother, frozen items and sundry household requisites. The only fashion items on sale were traditional charentaise slippers.
The lady retired a couple of months ago after 26 years. Her parents had run the shop for 35 years before her. Things looked bleak, but our mayor was determined to keep a shop in the village and insisted that any future use of the building should include a little magazin. Perhaps surprisingly, a new owner emerged who is going to reopen the shop and bar, and add a restaurant.
I’m not sure it’s an investment I would have made, but the family have lots of experience in this sort of operation. When renovations are completed in a few months, our little village should have its facilities once again … an unusually good outcome in rural France.
Heroically perhaps,. people are re-opening cafés and bakers (the latter a self-described Tunisian baker no less) that had previously closed - seemingly for good - both in our nearest small town and in a nearby village. There are also two examples of small general stores/cafés/point relais opening up in two other villages round here that are completely new. Like Al Rogers, I too have my doubts about the viability of some of these ventures in rural areas, but I’m very glad people are willing to have a go.For what it’s worth, I will do my best to support them.
It depends on whether the new owners/re-openers have the backing of the Marie and the locals.
In one of my two nearest villages, the local shop and bar has changed hands and the new owners have completely renovated the building, making it a very popular meeting place for the villagers.
In the other, the shop changed hands and the new owners managed both to mess up their drinks licence and some of their supplier contracts, causing them to be either closed or have empty shelves several times. The Marie also blocked the opening of a bar/bistro in the almost dead village a year or two ago.
Anyone relying on tourist trade this year in SW France is going to struggle.
A lot of lunchtime business can come from manual workers who have two hour lunch breaks and meal tickets. The auberge in the next village gets a lot of customers from this sector - four substantial courses and 25cl of wine for €16
Unfortunately the rules have changed recently and the Luncheon Vouchers (Ticket Restaurant) are now useable in supermarkets, Lidl, Aldi etc.
Lidl is even offering a credit of 10% of the lunch voucher given back extra for other spend, for luncheon voucher spend in September. (In the Lidl Plus app under Partenariats if you’ve not seen their emails).
A few months ago when the rule came in Aldi also made a fuss of publicising that luncheon vouchers could now be used.
Some of it was filmed in Carlus where we lived. The village was practically taken over, and, although the filming caused some disruption, it was fascinating to see how a movie set is put together.
Yes, but many workers, and that includes drivers, are very knowledgable as to where is the best place to spend them. We have a posh restaurant in the next village and I would see streams of overall clad blokes drifting in every lunchtime carrying metal cans to take some coffee away with them after eating. I was once in a routier 800 kms away from here and another driver asked where I was from. As soon as I mentioned the village he snapped back with the name of the resto.
There are two restos in the next village, both very popular at lunchtimes, but the one mentioned in my previous post never has truck drivers - they all go to the smarter (and gastronomically better) place on the other side of the departmental road.
The two restos are very different and one’s food is lighter, less traditional and slightly more expensive, but that’s the truckers’ favourite - perhaps their luncheon vouchers are larger…
our village is in similar situation.