Dawn: run by the inhabitants, a grocery store brings a village back to life

At coffee time, Denis, Marcel, Patrick and the others have become accustomed to meeting around the table. Three mornings a week, the associative place opens its doors. You can do your shopping there, have a coffee or simply meet up. In Maraye-en-Othe (Aube), we also experienced the retirement of businesses. Françoise has lived there for 54 years. She saw windows close one after the other. “There was a bakery, there was a butcher’s (…) and then afterwards, no more business, apart from my mother-in-law who also ran a café and a grocery store, after that nothing more”she says.

A place managed by the inhabitants of the village

Since the end of 2020, on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays, you can push the door of the premises, buy bread, everyday products or local productions. The particularity of the place is that it is managed by the inhabitants of the village. “We post the schedule a month in advance with the opening days and we wait for people to simply register and everyone takes charge (…), we have never had any problems “explains Florence Cornette, secretary of the association “Autour d’Othe”.