Little towns like Montrésor are not especially prosperous. Montrésor depends a lot on tourism for its revenues. When you see how many houses there are in the village, it's surprising that the population is only 350.
Two hundred years ago, more than 700 people lived in Montrésor. The population has been steadily declining ever since. Optimists point out that the population has held steady at about 350 over the past 30 years. Still, there are empty storefronts around the town.
The size of the average household in Montrésor is just 1.9 persons. The village is isolated in many ways. There aren't any main highways. There's no industry any more. The average age of its inhabitants is rising. Younger people find larger towns like Loches (pop. 6,500) and nearby cities like Tours (pop. 136,000, but nearly 500,000 in its metropolitan area) more attractive as places to live, work, and raise families.
There's one small grocery store but no supermarket in or near Montrésor. It's a 20-minute drive over to Loches, or 25 minutes up to Saint-Aignan or Montrichard, or down to Châtillon-sur-Indre, where there are supermarkets, weekly open-air markets, and other shops and businesses. You couldn't call Montrésor a ghost town, but... Personally, I wouldn't want to live there — even though it is one of the plus beaux villages de France.
People need people, non? The story is the same here in rural America. We need our stores more than ever.
ReplyDeleteI know I do. I don't want to spend a lot of time on the road, in whatever kind of weather, driving miles and miles to the super- or other market.
DeleteIt is a lovely town.
ReplyDeleteAnd there is a home for sale at the base of the chateau: http://www.frenchestateagents.com/french-property-for-sale/view/70466NBO37/house-for-sale-in-montresor-indre-et-loire-centre-france
Sorry for the long link.
Link is fine. Here it is live. Prices are pretty low, aren't they? At least by California standards. I still say it would be hard to live there. I'm happier in Saint-Aignan, where there are more modern conveniences.
DeleteSame story in the US and probably any number of other industrialized countries. The economic and social forces that encourage people into more urban areas overlook that the small towns are tied into the food production chain. In the US, there's so much good farmland being plowed under for McMansions, and then it's lost forever. Quite a quandary.
ReplyDeleteWhat would bother me more than the distance from stores would be the constant trooping of visitors through my little town. I've lived in a tourist destination and it's a nuisance. Where we live now requires a 30-40 minute drive to a grocery store. The up-side is that after a day out, we come home and really appreciate how peaceful it is. You and Walt may have the same feeling.
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