Spare a thought for the poor French restaurateur. Once the iconic image of a sybaritic nation that loved nothing more than a boozy meal out with friends or colleagues, the French restaurant is in deep crisis. Traditional restaurants are closing faster than you can shout “garçon!”, as eating habits change and the cost of living pinches.

“It’s a catastrophe for our profession,” Franck Chaumès, president of the restaurant branch of the Union of Hospitality Trades and Industries (UMIH) said in a television interview recently. “Some 25 restaurants are going out of business every day.” The UMIH has demanded – so far in vain – that the government ration the opening of new restaurants, in proportion to the local population, and license only professionals who are qualified in cooking and accounting.

The only businesses that seem immune to the hollowing out of France’s hospitality sector are those providing haute cuisine at eye-watering prices to the super-rich and fast-food chains such as the ubiquitous McDonald’s, which does a roaring trade.

The days when business, politics and diplomacy were transacted over lengthy wine-fuelled lunches are mostly gone. When I started as a reporter in Paris in 1978, there was no point calling a ministry or corporate press office between 1pm and 3pm, even in a crisis. Everyone was à table. Nowadays, only parliamentarians perpetuate the........

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