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The traditional French café has been in decline for so long that we tend to ignore its plight. The story is one of those chestnuts like the demise of the concierge, the beret, the baguette and so on. But things are now becoming pretty dire for an an industry that is still part of the fabric of French life. Last year, 2,000 neighbourhood cafés and bistrots closed for good in Paris and the surrounding Ile de France region.

Across France, les petits bistrots de quartier and les cafés de village are struggling. In the 1960s, there were some 200,000 in France. There are now about 30,000. Cafés lost 12 percent of their income in 2009.

Like cafés and pubs in other parts of Europe, the bistrot du coin has failed to keep up with the way of life.

The worst hit are the village cafés and the troquets in the towns, with their regulars at the zinc bar and their minimal menus of steak-frites and jambon-beurre sandwiches. An exception to the slump are the bar-PMUs where you go to bet on the horses and buy state lottery games. Subsidies are being suggested, especially for the cafés which are at the heart of village life. Local councils in some parts already help out financially to keep the café open. I believe that's the case in my own village in the Cévennes.

Things are not so bad for the big bistrots in Paris and other cities, though the losses are heavy. There were four little cafés around the corner from our old office on the Place de l'Opéra. A couple even had the flipper (pinball) and 'baby-foot' games that used to be standard everywhere. All have disappeared since 2000, replaced by fashion outlets. Two Starbucks have opened alongside. All over Paris, old-style cafés have been ditching the zinc, formica and traditional tables and going up market as lounges. That means higher prices, velvet seats, purple walls, fancy woodwork and young personnel. The masters at this are the big groups Costes, Flo and the Blanc brothers. The owners of the old shabby little bistrots don't have enough money to convert. They order a sandwich and a glass of water rather than the old menu with wine.

With cigarettes banned indoors and police waiting for drunk drivers, people no longer while away the hours with rounds of apéros after work. People drink less and they do it more at home, though you still see people in parts of Paris in downing their petit blanc at the bar before heading to work in the morning. (This is the point where foreign correspondents haul out the line from Honoré de Balzac: "The bar of a cafe is the parliament of the people.")

The Government is pointing the finger at the owners' failure to adapt. An example of this came from Bernard Quartier, President of the IDCCB, an industry group. In France, the most widely consumed drink is Coca Light (Diet Coke), yet until very recently the majority of bistrots did not sell it, claiming that it is not suited to their clients, he said. The modern public no longer has an appetite for the traditional menus of leathery steaks, oeufs mayonnaise and pichets of plonk. Service also has to improve, Quartier says.

High prices are driving away customers. Libération got into the subject today, saying people can't afford to pay 2.50 euros for a simple expresso, the price in Paris and big cities. The price of a tea-bag and hot water is even steeper.

The Government's wants cafés and bistrots both to diversify and specialise. They should offering a variety of services, from train tickets and postage stamps to wi-fi and internet terminals. "The cafe must become multi-service and this applies as much to towns as the country," said Michel Mercier, Minister for the Countryside and Town and Country Planning. He worried about "the disappearance of these places that are part of our national identity."

Posted by Charles Bremner - TimesOnline
- Enviado por Janer @ 12:04 AM