I'm surprised by this article. I live in Toulouse, France and quite the opposite appears to be happening. Almost all of the run down cafés in the centre of Toulouse have undergone extensive refits in the last year and are now packed.
The article does make me wonder to what extent these bar owners are failing to update their run down bars and hence they are losing their clientele. My experience of the French is that they do love to complain about things not being like they used to be, perhaps these people should look to Toulouse as an example.
It may be that refits require loans, and loans are hard to get now; moreover, the article may have been talking more about cafes in smaller, less busy towns, which banks may be less willing to lend to.
It has nothing to do with loans. Over the past few years, the French government has banned smoking in public places and virtually banned drinking as well. If you can't smoke nor drink, what's the point of going to such a place?
What have they done about drinking? Italy banned smoking, but not drinking. Austria has yet to ban much of anything anywhere, and thus it's impossible for my wife and 6 month old daughter to go out for coffee and cake with friends in a pastry shop and not come home reeking of cigarette smoke, which is pretty gross (babies should not smell like smoke).
You just can't drink and drive any more. I'm not saying it like it's a bad thing, but it explains why people don't go to bars after work as much as they did before.
Regarding smoking bans, I think owners should be free to decide if they want to accept or ban smoking inside their property. You'll have family-friendly places with no cigarette smoke, and adult-friendly places with no loud babies; everybody would be happy!
> You'll have family-friendly places with no cigarette smoke, and adult-friendly places with no loud babies; everybody would be happy!
Well, except you don't. Owners are free to decide here in Austria, and people smoke everywhere. We have located three places that are smoke-free here in Innsbruck: Ikea, McDonalds, and Burger King. People who are ordinarily very polite, always stopping at cross-walks and such, think nothing of lighting up in front of a pregnant woman or a baby.
I think this is one of the most interesting solutions I've seen to the smoking problem:
The article does make me wonder to what extent these bar owners are failing to update their run down bars and hence they are losing their clientele. My experience of the French is that they do love to complain about things not being like they used to be, perhaps these people should look to Toulouse as an example.