Save the Cafe Bar!

I was under the impression that small, smoky cafes were a permanent fixture of French culture, impermeable to change and exempt from economic hardships that might befall the rest of the country. Unfortunately, the NY Times recently reported that quite the opposite is occurring, in the article Across France, Cafe Owners Are Suffering. How very foolish of me.

However, there are old school Frenchmen that refuse to accept the changes.

“We need the cafe to have an equilibrium between the village and the world outside,” Mr. Perrey said. “Without the cafe, you lose the conviviality. You lose your mates. Business agreements are made behind the zinc” of the bar.

“We have to be very careful,” Mr. Perrey continued. “If we standardize everything in France, and we study everything, and forbid everything, we destroy respect for our culture. We need to preserve the cafe bar. What is a village but a cafe, a school, a pharmacy, a bakery and a city hall?”

I think you could easily substitute "intentional community" for "village" in the last sentence. Eh, BFC?