[Music] [Music] [Music] hello and thanks for joining us for France in Focus I'm Tom Burgess Watson in this Edition we're turning our eye to the most French of institutions the beastro France's answer to the pub which like this one the polydor in the Latin quarter of Paris had played a central part in French culture for more than a [Music] century hundreds of eies just like this one open their doors across France every single year but an even greater number is shutting up shop and that's been the overall trend for the past few years so why
is that and what is being done to save the French beastro let's take a look stepping off the train at paris's Galo Le it's almost the first thing you see exterior K is a classic French beastro which since the ' 50s has been serving up drinks traditional cuisine and good humor to its regulars I work in computers so in order not to be stuck inside an office all day I tried to find other places to work I found this bar two years ago and now I come here almost every morning we're treated well here yes
we are it's very nice Marcel is the man behind this friendly environment he's worked in the business for 50 years devoting his life to beastro since his youth in southern France now he'd like to pass on the B on retire and travel but he's struggling to find a buyer the difficulties include financing regulation neighborhood associations that are against cafes or noise and then of course the difficult hours it takes a lot of sacrifice and do people want to make a sacrifice I don't think so but Marcel won't hear of handing over his business to a
chain for him beos are the heart and soul of Parisian neighborhoods an opinion shared by its visitors we always go to beast when we're in Paris but I live in the countryside and there are no beastro there so you lose the Habit it's a shame because there are no places to meet in the countryside The Disappearance of Beast is much more visible in the countryside in 70 years their numbers have shrunk from 600,000 to 35,000 in some villages young people are experimenting with new ingredients in the kitchen or by adding new stands and package drop
off services but sometimes the local council is obliged to step in as it did here in the village of Noel to keep the Cafe open it bought it for €200,000 out of an annual budget of 6 million it's an investment that will benefit our community it was Unthinkable to not have a place to mix with people like Cafe it was the only one left the mayor is going to these lengths because he knows the consequences if the beastro closes Jette alua conducted research on the subject her conclusion is clear in a village it's a dramatic
loss since it's the only place where you get kids coming home from football with their coach sitting next to elderly people playing cards all this social mixing these activities disappear it's a disappearance linked to changing Lifestyles once a Crossroads of society the beastro is in danger of becoming the exclusive Preserve of the privileged and tourists Beast have a rich history and in this particular instance the polydor dates back to 1845 it was a favorite of the likes of Ernest Hemingway and James Joyce it also featured in The Woody Allen film Midnight in Paris well to
tell us more about beast and their cultural significance I'm joined Now by historian Lauren B thank you very much indeed for joining us Lauren that's my pleasure let me just start by asking you what is a beastro a beastro the beastro is a place where you come to meet people it's also a place where you can come and read spend by [Music] yourself it's open during the day and in the evening it's an absolutely essential place for the city and people who live in cities but also for people who live in the countryside Beast play
different roles for different people beos have played a pretty important part haven't they in French cultural history what would you say is the role of a beastro in the history of French culture I would answer with another question what did Joyce and Hemingway come for I think they came for two things they immediately found here the contact with the people beos are a testament to popular history everything is played out here the good times times of fear indignation and anger but they also came looking for something that you find in Parisian bastos which is fundamentally
liter the thing is we can't tell the story of French literature without telling the story of French cafes that's where writers would meet are all and Ceta those are all beos the history of French bastos and the history of French literature are deeply linked what sort of role did Beast Ros play in in France's Revolution do you think first and foremost Bros are the place where we get angry it has a certain cathartic use and people folks come here to vent their indignation but when venting is not enough beos are also the place where protests
are organized this is where people come to talk come to meet when the Revolutionary S kulot held meetings in and around Paris they often met in Beast is there a period in French history that you would consider to have been the Golden Age of the French beastro well technically the Golden Age of beos was during laip Fran's golden age before World War I and it's probably not a coincidence as Dominque khalifas said recently in his book that the Golden Age of France was the Golden Age of beos back then there were over 300,000 beos in
France 50,000 in Paris alone which is quite substantial there are about 8,000 left today okay finally L when you walk into a beastro you reach for the menu what is the first thing you would typically order coffee coffee or wine I don't usually eat in beos I read I read the news or I read a book and I never eat while I read I also wait for people and I never eat while I wait also when I was younger a while ago I would try to charm young women and you can't really do that while
eating some sausage and mashed potatoes okay well cultural historian Lauren B thank you very much indeed for speaking to France 24 thank you well wouldn't it be nice to spend an entire day people watching in a place like this or probably you don't have the time to do that will'll save you the trouble a France 24 team has gone and done just that to find out what happens in a place like this during a given Daya [Music] [Music] we live just above so it's practical for us to come and uh we know the we know
the gas [Music] mag for [Music] well that's it for this week's edition of France in Focus thank you very much indeed for watching we'll see you again soon here on France 34 [Music]
