Since the introduction of a new law on July 1st, part of our National Heritage is in danger of extinction. Maybe it’s a part that some people would like to see disappear altogether. I’m not one of them, though, because it would mean the end of something Belgium is famous for. No it isn’t chocolate, frites, lace or even beer; although the latter is unavoidably linked to it. I’m talking about our small, local village cafés. I admit that they have lost of their former charm and function in the old days when village people used to gather there once a day to exchange the daily news, have a few drinks and play cards. And yet ...
Adolphe Sax - to find out where this famous man comes in,
you'll have to read the whole post!
you'll have to read the whole post!
Photo: www.itravel.com
Rural villages are getting smaller because the young people get married and move away towards towns and cities, while other villages slowly but surely develop into small towns with newcomers who have their own social circle and rarely mingle with the locals. In order to survive, local cafés in these new 'towns' at one point started serving food. At first it were just some cold snacks, sandwiches and spaghetti Bolognese. But gradually more culinary dishes started to appear on their menu cards.
This phenomenon as well as the growing consensus on the negative effects of tobacco has led to a smoking ban. At first the new rule only applied to cafés serving food: a rule I loudly applaud since the time when I was forced to eat a delicious casserole of mussels sitting next to a lady who apparently had a craving for' smoked' mussels. In between mussels she puffed at her cigarette which she kept in her left hand while picking up the mussels with her right hand. It was disgusting!
However, after a transitory period of about one year, the government officials in charge of controlling whether the new law was respected found that there was a very fine line between ‘food’ as it had been described in the law on the one hand, and the way in which it was presented in daily life situations on the other. Fining the offenders – the café owners who allowed people to smoke in their establishment – turned out to be a problem, as there appeared to be a lot of loopholes in the law text.
Therefore the government decided to ban smoking all together, including in the small village cafés where only a few elderly and locals come to exchange the local gossip and to play cards. After hardly six months, the new rule has turned out to be lethal, not to the smokers, but to the cafés! Settled into their long-time habits, sitting at the same old table, glass of beer in one hand and a self-rolled cigarette in the other, the regulars can't seem to cope with the chance and the new rule that forces them to go outside to smoke their cigarette, thus missing a good hand in a game of whist or a juicy piece of gossip! So, they prefer to stay at home ...
As a result 2,500 village cafés, where never an item of food has been served, have closed down since July 1st. Is it worth it? I have mixed feelings about the whole matter. I don’t approve of smoking and I’m glad that I can now enjoy a meal – simple or gastronomic – without having to look for my food through a cloud of heavy and smelly smoke that is hovering over my plate. However, why deprive some elderly – and sometimes not so old – village locals of their ‘watering hole’: the place where they used to meet their friends to stay in touch with village life?
My favourite café in our village (a village that had now become a small town) serves food and so smoking is no longer allowed in the main room. They have a back room though that opens up to the garden where you are allowed to smoke and where no food is served. When I go there once a week with my friend (who occasionally smokes), he disappears into the back room once or twice to have a cigarette, while I wait for him. I use this ‘time-out’ to practice my favourite pass-time: watching people!
The café is called ‘The Saxophone’. In the back of the café, safely protected in a large glass display case, hangs a real brass ‘saxophone’, an instrument invented by Adolphe Sax (1814-1894) who lived in the city of Dinant south of Namur, in the southern part of Belgium.
8 comments:
It is a shame to lose all those small cafes. Maybe cafes of a certain size could be exempt. It is certainly a dilemma. I guess the patron could still patronize the cafe, but just step outside if he must have a smoke. Basically that's what has happened in the US. Very well written Martine.
Its the same in Australia except now we have to walk thru a smoke screen to enter and leave cafes. You might detect that I'm very anti smoking. Each to his own though.
I would certainly miss those cafes. I don't smoke but I grew up in a house of smokers and don't care if people do it at all in bars/cafes. It's a shame that people are losing their livelihoods over this. I feel so bad for them.
m.
An excellent post Martine. I have just shared with it with my guests at my beach house and it has caused a lot of comment and sadness to think so many small cafes have closed. As Leon and Sue commented we have the same situation here in Australia.
Bob, Thank you. Stepping out is the only option, but it kind of breaks up the party and the card game!
L&S, Smoking - like all addictions - is very bad for your health. I understand that, being the sportsman you are, you feel strongly about this. I'm sure that a smoker could never achieve what you and your dad are doing. 'Chapeau', as they say in French.
Mark, My father was a very heavy smoker too. At the time the dangers of passive smoking were unknown. I discourage people to smoke in my apartment, but do allow them to have the occasional cigarette (1!). I have mixed feelings about the total ban in cafes though. Why can't we have both, smoking and totally non-smoking cafes? That way it is possible to please everybody.
Louise, I'm flattered that my post became a converstation topic in Australia! Thank you. Wouldn't it be nice if the law could come up with some compromise?
It's the same in the UK Martine. many of the pubs in smaller villages have closed. Most have been down the serving food route but the smoking ban brought another dimension here too. I'm with you though....why can't we have smoking and non smoking establishments. Mind you, the way things are going, soon alcohol will be outlawed and that will be the end of it all....should take a while though, so in the meantime cheers Martine and to all your blog readers.
Veronica
We were all agreed here on this other side of the world that common sense should be given more of a role; particularly with the small, village cafes In your country and the little, country pubs in mine.
Veronica, The same thought has occurred to me; about acohol being banned, I mean. I hope they'll wait another 50 years or so. By then I will be too old to visit our local café! :)) Cheers to you too!
Louise, Pity the government doesn't show that same common sense?!
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