“We need to bring a little life back to our villages”

It is in the small town of Val d’Auge, in Charente, that a community bar has just opened to bring life and social ties back to this village. An establishment which took place in the former town hall premises which became available after an intercommunal regrouping.

It’s not a café like any other. Here, there is no professional bartender, but volunteers who act as waiters twice a week. Claudette is very impressed by this initiative: “We need to bring a little life back to all our villages. It’s good.”

The “Valcafé” is open Friday from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. and Saturday from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. And whatever the age, we welcome this initiative which allows us to find a place of conviviality. Mélanie is part of the association in charge of the project:

We realize that even our own neighbors, we don’t necessarily know them. It’s an opportunity to meet people you don’t usually see and it’s nice to have young people and old people coming together.

Melanie

Valérianne Association

If this project was able to see the light of day, it is because the town hall has been closed since 2019, following the grouping of four villages in the Rouillac region within the commune of Val d’Auge. This is what was explained to us Alexandre Gauvin, assistant to Val d’Auge town hall: “ When we created the commune of Val d’Auge with the 4 historic communes, we wanted to bring everyone together, for everyone to meet, to know each other… We also have a sort of deficiency in terms of young people, we don’t have much to offer them here. So, we said to ourselves that a place like that with a table football, with activities that would be offered to them, especially during school holidays, would be interesting. »

In the future, the café will also offer reading and introductory painting workshops. Other fun activities should follow in the following months.

And in addition, here is the report by Bruno Pillet and Guillaume Fautrat.