TRUCK STOP RESTAURANTS: A FRENCH TRADITION UNDER THREAT? | TF1 | Reportages

Recognizable by their red and blue badge, their home cooking with plenty of butter and their copious dishes, the roadside Routiers restaurants are an indisputable part of our French national heritage. However, over recent years, these centres of life and encounter are gradually vanishing from our landscape. And yet there are some who keep on believing. At the age of 52, Djamel decided to resurrect a long-abandoned truck stop restaurant. After investing all his savings and months of renovation, he will finally realise his dream. In the Basque country, Claire has not been so lucky. Since the construction of a near-by highway, truck drivers no longer pass her tiny restaurant. For her last day before shutting up shop for good she invited her most loyal truckers to an evening that will remain long etched in her heart. Pascal, a truck driver of 32 years’ experience, has become the white knight for truck stop restaurants. To come to their aid and guide his trucker colleagues to good eats, he set up an Internet site on which he posts reviews and awards stars in the manner of the famous Michelin Guide. One day he discovers a restaurant in the Limousin that he is unlikely to forget. In order to keep this French tradition alive, Céline doesn’t stint her efforts. From dawn till dusk, this feisty young woman is a constant presence in her restaurant. Set deep in the Corrèze, it is one of the last establishments still open. But with such a work rate, how much longer can this young woman hold out? Who are the proprietors of these convivial brasseries? What are they doing to avoid closure? Despite the announced demise of such establishments, some have set themselves the challenge of saving this heritage of French gastronomic culture.