The restaurant is a picture of French art de vivre. Situated in a former convent, it boasts a leafy terrace and fine dishes such as raw sea bass fillet with capers and tarragon.
Few Parisians, however, are planning to enjoy the gastronomy of Café A as the French political and social crisis stifles their joie de vivre.
“The mood is morose,” David Zenouda, 55, the owner, said as he anticipated a week of turmoil in parliament and violence on the streets.
With François Bayrou, the prime minister, expected to be toppled in a vote of confidence on Monday and calls for mass protests against President Macron on Wednesday, Zenouda is one of many businesspeople suffering from the political chaos.
Bookings have dried up, banks are refusing to lend money and ministers do not pick up their phones when the restaurant owners’ federation — of which Zenouda is vice-chairman in the Paris region — calls to demand action.
• France heading for ‘Liz Truss-style catastrophe’, warns PM
He said the end of the summer holidays often coincided with a drop in takings but that he was “easily 20 per cent down” on a normal year.
His observations have been echoed by economists, who say that annual growth may now not reach even the meagre 0.7 per cent forecast by the government.
David Zenouda said takings were down 20 per cent
LAURA STEVENS FOR THE TIMES
Unemployment, on the other hand, is at 7.5 per cent and rising. The cost of borrowing is going up too, and France is paying interest at rates higher than Greece and almost as high as Italy — both countries at which Paris has long looked down its nose. France has a debt equivalent to 114 per cent of its GDP and the eurozone’s worst deficit, equivalent to 5.8 per cent of annual output last year.
Bayrou says urgent action is needed, if not to balance the books then at least to make them less lop-sided. He wants tax rises and spending cuts to reduce the deficit by €43.8 billion next year. But few observers expect that a successor after his probable fall will have the political clout to impose such measures on a restless nation. Some doubt that there will be a budget at all, predicting an emergency finance law that would effectively prolong the status quo.
Given the uncertainty Fitch, the ratings agency, may deliver another blow by downgrading France’s creditworthiness on Friday.
Zenouda is also worried that this week’s protests will turn into a repeat of the 2018 gilets-jaunes (yellow vest) revolt, which was provoked by a fuel duty increase and grew into a mass uprising against Macron.
• Is France on the edge of civil war?
“I am afraid it could be the same thing all over again, with riot police everywhere, demonstrations and metro stations closed,” he said.
He has not a single table booked for Wednesday, scheduled to be the start of the Let’s Block Everything movement as it has been called by the left and right-wing websites that launched the idea in July. A company had booked for an after-work get-together for 30 staff that day. “They cancelled,” Zenouda said. “Firms are telling all their employees to stay at home.”