Near Rouen, “the country of Madame Bovary” hopes to save its last restaurant
23 shops for only 800 inhabitants, who says better? And yet, the village of Ry also feels in the hot seat. The municipality is currently moving “heaven and earth” to find a buyer for Au Puits d’Autan, its last restaurant under judicial liquidation, before June 15 – deadline for submitting takeover offers.
The expected offer must be acceptable in the eyes of the owner of the walls and the legal representative. The municipality, represented by the deputy Chantal Petit, also has its preferences: “We would like a bistronomic proposal, of quality without necessarily being top of the range. We have local products around Ry, farms, meat producers, let’s put them to work! »
Before Au Puits d’Autan, a first restaurant in the village had already gone out of business, Le Bovary resto, which went into liquidation. The municipality fears that the two restaurants will drag down other businesses and that the village will experience chain closures.
Literary tourism
Notice to potential buyers: Ry has a particularity, which makes this village very unique. Indeed, Gustave Flaubert probably imagined the characters of Emma Bovary taking inspiration from a famous local couple who lived at the time of the author. In the town, a course made of totems and desks parallels extracts from the 19th century novel and period photos in Ry.
“The husband was a health officer and his wife was called Delphine Couturier, says Chantal Petit. The couple experienced setbacks, she would have cheated on him. This man had been a pupil of Flaubert’s father in Rouen. The woman died at the same age as Emma Bovary and she too had had a child. There is also this long description with which the novel begins, that of a long street, and if you look at the configuration of Ry, it is exactly that. »
Real source or mere chance? Flaubert has always denied being inspired by people who really existed. Only one certainty: the 1,700 visitors provided each summer by the “Bovary festival” or the literary hikes of Ry would also like to be able to find a place to have a bite to eat there!