Tourism is not for everyone in France

Recently a reader wrote to Connexion’s letters page saying that he had tried to develop tourism in his town but the mayor was having none of it.

I visited an area where there is a building of great historical interest. In Britain there would have been restaurants, gift shops, the whole caboodle.

Here, there was just one tabac who was serving coffee and ice cream as an ‘extra’. I complimented the owner on his business acumen. He said he was going to have to stop serving coffees as villagers were upset, fearing it might bring too many tourists to the area.

They wanted a quiet and tranquil life in the village – not hundreds of tourists running round the place.

I think there you have the difference. In the UK, we would exploit a potential crowd-puller.

Here they want minimum disruption to their lives and a peaceful existence.

Is that not why many of us came here in the first place?

Yvonne Chappell, Strasbourg