French MPs mull bill to bring back village bars and cafes
France had some 200,000 cafes in 1960, often serving as the social centre of gravity for communities around the country.
By 2015, that number had fallen to just 36,000, with most closures in rural areas, according to a 2017 report from the France Boissons industry body and the CREDOC consumer studies agency.
Centrist lawmaker Guillaume Kasbarian has proposed a bill to bring back cafes and bars to remote countryside areas.
"Reopening cafes means bringing French villages back to life," Kasbarian said last week, arguing it would reknit social ties, boost local economies and create jobs.
Under French law, a Type IV alcohol licence allows consumption of alcoholic beverages, including those containing more than 18 percent alcohol such as spirits.
But no new such permit can be created, and aspiring bar managers must often wait until another type-4 bar closes permanently to acquire their licence from them, in what Kasbarian says is a long and complicated process.
The new legislation would allow cafe owners in rural municipalities with less than 3,500 inhabitants that do not already have a type-4 bar to request a brand-new permit instead of waiting for an old one to become free.
It is difficult to estimate how many villages could benefit from such a law, but 31,000 out of 35,000 rural municipalities have less than 3,500 inhabitants, according to the association of French mayors.
Detractors of the bill fear a rise in alcohol consumption in areas where social services to help people fight addiction are not readily available.
They have questioned why the law needs to allow the consumption of spirits in villages, and why a Type III licence that allows the selling of beer and wine is not sufficient.
Supporters have said the measure is important to draw residents out of isolation, and that hard liquor is available for sale at nearby supermarkets anyway.
Alcohol causes 49,000 deaths each year, according to the French health ministry's website.
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