We are currently on holiday in Southern France and in the Auvergne. Aside from the bigger cities we have visited several little villages and towns that were supposed to be beautiful or special places (“Les plus belles villes de France” and others). I was hoping to find villages filled with life, street cafés, shops, restaurants and such. But most of the towns seem to be completed lifeless. Restaurants and shops are boarded up and closed, doors locked, not even people on the streets (just one or two people walking their dogs). What happened to France? Where is the street life? Where are the old men playing boule in the places? Did we miss anything?
Nope, you’re seeing France as it actually is : There is no small-town life anymore. Hell, Auvergne is part of what we call the “diagonale du vide”, the “empty diagonal” (more literally “diagonal of the void”, which sounds badass) that crosses the country southwest to northeast and is known for low population, empty towns and zero infrastructure. Depending on where you’ve been in the South, it’s kind of the same : Nobody wants to live in villages anymore, all the money is in, the big cities on the coast.
So, in the villages you’ve visited, old people have died somewhat prematurely because there hasn’t been a doctor in a 50km radius for the past 10 years - because they’re all going to Paris or Cannes where they’ll make much more - their kids would rather die than have to go back there for the holidays or maintain the family home, so they sell it for cheap or just let it rot and ultimately the person working the shop/café, which is the only one servicing like ten villages, has to close down for lack of customers and no supplier being willing to commit a truck to resupply a single outlet in the ass-end of nowhere.
Assuming you’re British or American, this is something I’m a bit jealous of. There’s still small-town life in these countries, which is definitely on the way out here.
Thank you for the very accurate description
Very good question. I’m not from the south, but maybe towns are now less busy after COVID? When was the last time you were in the area?
Covid did hit the small villages and such very hard around here. These villages are mostly living on tourism, and are not exactly the most profitable. 2 years with huge drop in revenue closed down a lot of these unfortunately.