A bar in Nantes offers “old-fashioned pick-up” evenings every Friday evening.
Singles, who do not believe in apps, come to seduce but above all "to see people live and smile"
There is the discreet, who listens, but remains idly by.
The extrovert, and her quirky look.
The one whose face shows a few wrinkles, just separated.
It's a strange table that gradually formed on Friday evening at JYM, a bar recently opened in the Saint-Felix district of Nantes.
Like every week, from 7:30 p.m., men and women of all profiles come to the counter and then sneak into the second room, where “the evening” takes place.
"Some are quite shy, they don't dare say: 'I'm coming for the old-fashioned drag night,' smiles Eva, the manager of the establishment.
But once they are installed, the hardest part is over.
Because here, the rules are clear, the barriers are lifted: we come to meet people, between singles!
»
At a time when smartphones seem to have completely revolutionized the way to find love, this bar advocates the return of “the live relationship”.
Here, nobody believes in apps, "slaughtering" where everyone "only thinks about ass" and where "we feel like fish that we would come to catch", loose Sophie *, seated opposite of his girlfriend.
Because far from annoying speed-dating, the dozen participants, without registration or age restriction, came here to have a drink around the same large table.
Nothing very complicated, but that is precisely what pleases, especially in the era of the Covid.
"People not serious, it's not my delirium"
“At least we see people living, smiling, appreciates Adrien, single at 42, after 15 years of relationship.
It's a change from working from home and going out to classic bars, where I can't see myself approaching a girl and saying "do you want to be my girlfriend?".
Like a second nudge, a question box circulates.
Sometimes, a theme is written on the whiteboard to stimulate discussion.
Between two bursts of laughter, more or less embarrassed, we talk about cinema, cooking, but also, of course, about love.
At the end of the table, a dark-haired man with glasses and a shy smile says he is “ready to meet the right person”.
The young man, 24, confides like many others that he "tried a lot of dating sites", in vain.
“People not serious, it's not my delirium, he continues.
Me, I want to build a family, find someone until death, have children and show them that love exists!
Florentin is the same age and has more or less the same speech.
He saw his friends gradually get into a relationship while he concentrated on his studies.
"I didn't starve but yes, I want to settle down," admits the young man.
But in today's society, just to meet someone's gaze, I find it super hard.
And then we don't want to harass them either.
»
"We fell on a heavy"
The hour passes and the atmosphere turns more to confessions than to seduction.
But already, “not being the only single person at a party” is enough to make Jeanne* smile again, who believes, while wolfing down her burger, that “dragging takes time”.
Her neighbour, who nevertheless traveled from Vendée, seems a little disappointed, even if she claims to have come “out of curiosity, without expecting much, after a year of celibacy”.
To the chagrin of the dean of the assembly, who looks at her out of the corner of his eye, way too insistent.
“We came across a heavy man, who only talked about him, tell about him two friends in their thirties, coats already on their backs.
We prefer to continue the evening elsewhere.
It's a shame, because we liked the concept.
According to the manager of the JYM bar, "it has already happened that people leave together".
This may be the case this Friday, where the drag night has been renamed “Sans Valentin” for the occasion.
* Names marked with an asterisk have been changed.
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