'Oldies' can eat for free in our restaurant!
Owners of auberge in Creuse invite guests to bring along elderly relatives, friends or neighbours for a free meal to mark France's annual journée de solidarité
An auberge in the Creuse has taken the spirit of France's annual journée de solidarité and run with it - and will not allow older patrons to pay for the food on Monday, June 5.
The Quigg family have owned and run the Auberge des Pêcheurs in La Celle-Dunoise since moving to France from their native Ireland a decade ago. They were inspired to make their generous meal deal after a local woman called on them to help say thank you to kind-hearted villagers.
Cathal Quigg, 34, who operates the bar and front-of-house, told Connexion: "A neighbour of mine, who had been sick and was in hospital, bought a meal for pretty much the whole of the village, because everybody came and helped with her animals and with this, that and the other. She paid for the meal as a thank-you.
"I found that nice. That was where the base of the idea was. We tried to find something that could have a social use.
"A lot of old people live in the Creuse, and a lot of them we don't see, because they don't get out. The idea was to try and find a way that people could bring an older person, get them out of the house and come out a meal.
"We chose Pentecost because it's the journée de solidarité and it's the same sort of idea."
Anyone around the age of 80 or over is entitled to eat for free on Monday, but Mr Quigg said that staff would not demand birth certificates. "We'll be judging it by eye," he said. "We can only fit so many people in. We put 'more-or-less 80' on the poster, but we're not being too stringent about it.
"I had a woman who rang this morning asking if she could come on her own - we'll surely fit her in."
The menu for the day includes regular auberge favourites chicken with lemon and rosemary, and chestnut-stuffed pork, and Mr Quigg expects the venue to be filled. "Last weekend - the Ascension - was quite busy, we were averaging 200 covers a day. Inside the restaurant, it's quite small - we can fit about 40 in, but we've a huge garden that we can fill right up."
Running the auberge is a family affair. Mr Quigg came over with his parents to take over the business in 2007. His sister, Karen, who now runs the kitchen, followed a couple of years later.
