what are the prospects for the City of Gastronomy and Wine?
“The City of Gastronomy? No, I’ve never set foot there” Shopping bag in hand, Marie-Thérèse does her shopping in the halls of Dijon. She appreciates local products, but like other regulars of the place, she admits that she has not yet had the curiosity to visit this new site opened 8 months ago. “However, I had an invitation for the opening, but I didn’t dare go there, and then it’s a little outside the city center. So what? go there and walk the aisles without buying anything? “ she wonders.
That’s all the challenge of the City for this year 2023: to seduce the inhabitants. In fact, the start is promising. “We count 520,000 visitors over the first 8 months of operation” underlines William Krief, the president of the Gastronomic Village. “If this rate continues over a year, we will be the most visited site in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. We sometimes have peaks of 10,000 to 15,000 visitors per weekend.”
And yet, during the week, the aisles of the City of Gastronomy and Wine
are often quite calm. Excluding tourist traffic on does not rush. “We have to ask ourselves the question. Selling cheese or charcuterie boards is not enough to bring in people” warns Matthieu Honnorat, the former director of the Village Gastronomique who was chosen from last December. “The place is beautiful, but it needs entertainment to make it popular. It needs to be a Disney Land of gastronomy, with demonstrations and events.”
The ex-director ensures that he leaves for other horizons without anger, but he is not the only one to have left the ship. Half of the 70 employees of the Gastronomic Village present at the inauguration also gave up their aprons. “It’s a turnaround that is not abnormal” assures William Krief. “We are in a situation where there are many requests in the world of catering and gastronomy. So there are a lot of movements, and in our field, it can be difficult to recruit.” The 9 shops remain open, and operate normally.
Frédéric Boudard shows him a big smile. This Auxerrois has just taken over the fish market “L’Ecaille” with enthusiasm and determination. “It’s true that for the moment I see a lot of people from Yonne or Jura, the people of Dijon are too shy. They have the feeling that we are a beautiful museum. No, there are shops here with people who know how to work and who want to sell!”
A weekend of video games with consoles to be won
“It is true that we still have to seduce the people of Dijon and give them reasons to come back. We are therefore committed to having entertainment every weekend. Friday, Saturday and Sunday (January 13, 14 and 15) we will have an animation with about twenty arcade terminals and a dozen free access pinball machines distributed throughout the City. We are also going to organize a disguise contest with a PS5 and a Switch to be won.”
“We have, wrongly, the image of a place that is expensive” recognizes William Krief, “but that’s not the case. Here you can enjoy an espresso prepared by a Meilleur Ouvrier de France for 1.60 euros, as elsewhere in town. When at the cinema, it has lowered its prices. The ticket has passed from 15 to 9.90 euros. Dijon residents have to come and form their own opinion.”