Au Revoir to Long Lunch As French Tighten Belts

It is seen as the mark of civilized eating, distinguishing well-fed French workers from the English who wolf prawn sandwiches at their desks. But France's tradition of the three-course restaurant lunch is in danger of being killed off by the economic crisis.

Around 3,000 traditional French restaurants, cafes and bars went bust in the first three months of 2008 and unions predict a further rush of closures as people worry about making ends meet. The number of French restaurants going bankrupt rose by 25% from last year, and cafes forced to close were up by 56%.

Le Figaro's renowned restaurant critic François Simon said yesterday that French consumers' frugality had changed national eating habits and forced restaurant owners to the brink. Diners were now skipping the traditional aperitif, avoiding starters, drinking tap water, passing on wine and coffee and - at most - sharing a pudding.

Even the city's smartest restaurants were getting impatient with smaller orders. In one restaurant near Paris's Gare de Lyon, he reported, two couples were asked to leave by a desperate restaurant owner because they would not order starters. The restaurant chain Hippopotamus was now running loyalty deals and special-offer hamburgers, which had become more popular than French steak dishes. Office workers were increasingly buying take-away baguettes and supermarket lunches.

Making ends meet with low salaries and rising food prices has become a national obsession as France's economy continues to be sluggish. Regular TV reports describe the desperation of people forced to eat cheap tinned vegetables or forage in bins at markets.

The restaurant sector has seen the third highest number of bankruptcies in France this year after the construction and building trades, according to the credit insurance group Euler Hermes SFAC.

The time French people spend on eating meals in restaurants has already gone down: in 1975, a lunch out would take an average of one a half hours. By 2005, it had fallen to 32 minutes.

Danièle Deleval, vice president of the UMIH restaurant and hotel union, said: "We're very worried. Since the start of the year, the number of restaurant customers has dropped on average 20% and we're seeing no signs of improvement."

Jean Guillaume, owner of Le Bouquet brasserie on Boulevard Haussmann in a business district of Paris's chic 8th arrondissement, said: "Lunch customers used to order a main course, dessert, coffee and a bottle of wine. Now they're limiting themselves to a main course, tap water, and giving up the rest. Of 75 customers in this lunchtime, none had a bottle of wine ... It's the end of a tradition of lunching out and it looks like figures will stay this low for two to three years."

The nearby boulangerie, however, was busy selling take-away baguettes, with queues down the street at midday.

Restaurant and bar owners are reeling from a poor summer with fewer international tourists visiting Paris, especially Americans and Japanese. And in Toulouse, cafe owners complained that customers would try to make one drink last as long as possible.

Even in French holiday destinations like Arcachon in the west or the Côte d'Azur in the south, restaurant owners said business was down by at least 10%.