Charlotte Gallagher

And large numbers of bistros and brasseries are now worryingly empty.

This report from John Lawrenson in the western French town of Angers.

It's half past twelve and the Angevin, a restaurant in an industrial park on the edge of Angers, is still pretty empty.

The owner, Michael Mourot, is disappointed about lunch times like these and anxious about the future.

We should be three quarters full at this time, but we're more than three quarters empty.

Now it's about $15.

Michael says he's kept prices low, $19 for his three-course lunch menu, but he's still lost 10% of his clientele over the past year.

Statistics for France show average net profits in the restaurant sector that were 11% pre-Covid have now fallen to under 3%.

For Michael, things are a bit worse than that.

Nowadays, I feel like I'm working for nothing.

Once I've managed to pay my staff, pay my suppliers and pay all the obligatory charges, taxes and contributions, it's almost a relief if I manage to break even at the end of the year.

When you say break even, do you manage to pay yourself a salary?

Not every month, no.

It's like everything's falling apart.

It is possible that I lose everything.

In the pretty square in the centre of town, surrounded by buildings of white stone, none of the people I stop and talk to have done this lunchtime what was until recently the French thing to do.

It's a question of time but also money.

For special occasions, like celebrating getting my internship, I go to restaurants, but otherwise no.

Usually I eat at home because it's cheaper and healthier.

Céline Vial, département or county-level president of the Hotel and Restaurant Owners Union, says traditional restaurants are disappearing fast.