“OWe are on survival, we are afraid of not finishing the year.” In Vence, in the historic heart of the city, several traders are screaming in agony.
“The old town is dying, there are weeks when you hardly see anyone passing through the market street”says one of them, who wished to remain anonymous, out of fear.
“There is an atmosphere of fear that reigns. When we do not follow the direction of the town hall, we are punished, we are put under pressure.”
Loss of contract, stoppage of advertising in municipal communications, ban on attending local events… Allegations rejected by the City through the voice of Anna Guay, deputy in charge of commerce.
Several examples were mentioned to us by traders, who did not wish to be cited by name. “Those who remain silent and go in the direction of the town hall, we leave them alone.”
“The town hall is aware”
According to these professionals from different fields, “the town hall is aware” difficulties encountered. “But there are major dysfunctions within the municipality and we are always very poorly received by the mayor [Régis Lebigre]who is often sarcastic”sighs one of them.
Another person attests: “Grievances have already been raised, the City is in denial and is contemptuous towards us. They only swear by the Grand-Jardin, but the streets of the old city are empty. Something is really wrong .”
Their feeling? “The City wants to make people believe that everything is going well, but Vençois commerce is starting to die here. When we compare it to towns like Saint-Paul-de-Vende or La Colle-sur-Loup… There are plenty of things to do in Vence, to offer, but instead, it’s decline.”
“There’s a lack of events”
What do they want? “Let the neighborhood be revitalized.” So far, easy to say. But how? Traders issue leads: “There is a lack of events, like garage sales, which work very well, and above all, we need to have regular markets on Fridays and Tuesdays.. And not just two poor merchants, a real nice market, like before.“
The melancholy is palpable: “Before, the street was crowded, we jostled to get through. The elders talk to us a lot about the market, which they would like to see come back.”
A trader even launched a petition that he had customers and passers-by sign in the street, to reinstate the markets. “People support us in the process”rejoices the latter.
Traders hardly believe in the town hall’s gourmet market project: “That’s not going to make things happen.”
To combat the loneliness that plagues their stores, several of them have joined forces to offer aperitif boards, between 10 a.m. and 7 p.m., at the end of the week. Cheese, cold meats, fishmonger, glass of wine… All for 10 euros.
“We don’t make figures on what we sell but at least it brings people. And the town hall supported us.”
The historic city market will be redesigned
Saturday June 1, after an eight-year hiatus, the Vence market returned to its Place Clemenceau neighborhoods, in the heart of the historic center. Five months later, he is at a standstill. For what?
“We launched this market in record time and by mobilizing everyoneexplains Anna Guay, deputy delegate for Commerce, it was a pressing request from the merchants of the market street, to revitalize the historic heart and their activity. When we do things quickly, we don’t always do good things. Some of these traders had promised to find us around thirty fairground workers, but hey…”
According to traders, the targeted fairgrounds ultimately did not wish to set up their stalls in Vence, favoring other more economically attractive markets.
And for those positioned on the Place du Grand-Jardin, Anna Guay defends: “Non-sedentary traders like the Place du Grand Jardin, we cannot move them like that. They have the right to work too.”
Over the weeks, due to a lack of participants, the crowds at the Place Clemenceau market dwindled and the experience proved counterproductive.
“Clothing competed with clothing storesadds Anna Guay, we couldn’t sell chicken because it wasn’t accepted by the street market…”
Insoluble equation. “Even if everyone has to do their part, we heard their message and our support for them remains unwavering. But what could we do?” So suspend the market. And think about what’s next.
The merger of two markets in sight
Recently recruited, Jérémie Charton, director of attractiveness in charge of the file, procrastinates: “A market clearly contributes to the attractiveness of the city, we have ideas for the future but we must take the time to think about it by involving the traders’ federation. This is not the time to make announcements.”
Anna Guay talks about a change “early 2025.” The City is in fact considering merging the Saveurs du monde market and Artisa’Vence. “We would like to combine these two events into a single market, and give them a common name.”
The elected official plans a monthly or bimonthly meeting on Place Clemenceau. What day? The one where the traders are open and there is no work at Les Halles (1): Saturday.
“We know nothing about the Halles todayexclaims Christel Hauvel Vice-President of Vence windows, who will be there? How will they work? It’s impossible to plan at this stage.”
Clothilde Dries, the President, agrees “the Saturday market was and remains nonsense, we have always been against it. Our position is very clear, we demand a heterogeneous clothing and food market which runs during the week on Tuesdays at the ARA and on Fridays at the old city.”
Questions for Anna Guay, Commerce Assistant, in Vence
Are you aware of the difficulties encountered by traders?
Yes, but there is also a complicated economic context to take into account. All this causes difficulties. “Non-essential” businesses are the first to be affected, but food purchasing is also affected by inflation. Yes, before we jostled in the rue du Marché, but before, there were more commercial offers. Then there was an evolution in society, with Internet competition. The City does a lot for animation and attractiveness.
Like what?
We organize more than 250 events per year. We do everything to attract people. We moved the garage sales from the Grand-Jardin to Place Clemenceau. We do them there in 95% of cases. For two years, we have been organizing the Telethon on Place Clemenceau. And on Rue du Marché, we have allocated the terraces for aperitif boards. The traders were super happy. We cannot say that we do not support the historic city. Afterwards, we cannot bring the customer to the store, nor force them to buy.
The City would be in denial according to them…
Not at all, we know it’s hard, we see the situation. It’s courageous today to open a business. We have to keep in mind the economic context. We sympathize with them.
Traders in the historic heart say they are poorly received at town hall…
We always receive them at the town hall, we listen but we are certainly not going to tell them false promises. We take into consideration what they tell us.
They say you would put pressure on them…
This is not true. I don’t take privileges. We do everything to ensure that everyone is on the same level. We want to speak intelligently and not make low blows. We are here to work together.
Many people don’t believe in Les Halles… Will they really be a driving force?
Yes, you have to believe it. But everyone will have to play the game. That is to say remaining open, etc., everything must not rest only on the Halles.
