It's an ordinary day.
The sky is soon blue and Brécy wakes up in time, helped by the snoring of tractors and the laughter of children rushing into the school bus.
In this village of Cher, at the crossroads of the departmental roads leading to the military air base of Avord and the dairy of Rians, the Aurore café has once again become a haunt.
Here, we issue gray cards, receive parcels, sell scratch games and basic necessities.
“
We seat 40 people at lunch and we have people at the bar every night.
The older ones cross the street to buy the bread.
Life is reborn and that was the most important
”, abounds Aurore, the 33-year-old boss who no longer has time to sleep.
And it's the same music from Monday to Sunday since she took over the last café in the village of a thousand souls, about twenty kilometers from Bourges.
“
It's the meeting of a beautiful building, a beautiful town, very nice inhabitants and our desire.
Brécy will therefore not be part of the 70% of French rural municipalities without commerce listed by INSEE.
“At the time, there were people in the countryside”
6 years ago, after 35 years of service and without finding a successor, Claudette Leblanc retired at the age of 71.
Leaving the town of this local institution orphan.
Christian Ferrand, the mayor of Brécy, then moved the earth so that his village did not become just a "
dormitory city
".
Thanks to this professional farmer and his municipal council, the town bought the business and restored the white stone building.
“
All this had a cost, 600,000 euros.
For Brécy, it's a lot but we don't regret it.
It creates a bond between all of us
,” he says.
“
There were 4 cafes here.
One there, one in front and then two over here.
There was a hardware store in the little house and then a baker and a butcher.
There were a lot of people in the countryside at that time.
» From the height of the most beautiful age, Marcel sinks his blue eyes into those of the heating engineer smeared with plaster, cigarette in hand and coffee on the edge of his lips, to tell him about life before.
Only he remembers.
The rest of the story is written by Aurore and her husband.
For a year, with a master hand and incomparable warmth, they have been watching behind their counter.
A “reconquest” plan in all rural towns
According to INSEE, rural municipalities – with less than 2,000 inhabitants – are the most numerous in France and bring together a quarter of the population.
To counter the disappearance of cafes, bakeries and all those storefronts impacted by the development of shopping centres, the mayors are looking for solutions so that life does not take flight in the long term.
Like Brécy and the fierce will of Christian Ferrand, more and more municipalities are buying up the walls of businesses that are lowering the curtain.
Initiatives are spreading so much that the government has just announced its support for them with a vast "reconquest" plan, through the voice of the Secretary of State for Rurality, Dominique Faure: "If the number of businesses in
France has continued to increase for 20 years in terms of surface area, number of stores and employees, their territorial distribution has continually become unbalanced, to the detriment of rural areas,
” she comments.
From this year, 12 million euros will be allocated to commercial projects such as that of Aurore, around 80,000 euros per initiative.
“
The main thing is to succeed in paying the employees and leaving the trade open.
If we make money, so much the better.
But I don't need much.
At Aurore's counter, there is coffee, bread, stamps, cigarettes and a number of trifles.
But above all, a subtle quest for joy, as if set up as an ideal.
In Brécy, the sun does not heat up like in Cavaillon.
But in this Cher-there as in the Lubéron de Giono, we know where the heart is.
Le Figaro
spent a few days at the Brécy counter.
Find Aurore, her café and her regulars in our video report.
