• Ephemeral terraces, renamed seasonal terraces, are back in the streets of Rennes.

  • The city, which authorizes them until September 30, has however revised the rules.

  • No terrace extension has been granted, priority was given to bars and restaurants that do not have a terrace all year round.

Stop calling them Covid terraces or pop-up terraces.

For the past few days, seasonal terraces have been back in the streets of Rennes.

Like many cities, the Rennes municipality had authorized these wooden structures at the time of deconfinement in 2020 and 2021 to revive the activity of bars and restaurants, hard hit by the health crisis.

In the Breton capital, this support system had been widely acclaimed with 120 requests for extension or creation of terraces granted by the city.

"It clearly saved our lives, without it and state aid, we would have closed the shop," says Patricia, manager of the Café des Feuilles.

In front of this restaurant located rue Saint-Hélier, the small green terrace has again been installed since May 15 on a parking space.

"It's not necessarily to make more cutlery, assures the restaurateur.

Above all, it brings a little breathing space to the inhabitants of the district, a break with the street where there is a lot of traffic.

“Rue de Saint-Malo, the managers of King Créole also brought out their wooden terrace built during the Covid-19.

More imposing, it allows them to gain around twenty covers at each service.

"Customers love to eat on the terrace," says Martial, the manager of the premises.

When the weather is nice, there is hardly anyone inside.

»

Priority to establishments without a terrace all year round

These two restaurants are among the 37 establishments authorized this year to deploy their seasonal terrace until September 30.

The restrictions having been lifted for bars and restaurants, the city of Rennes has indeed been more selective in the allocation of terrace authorizations.

No request for extension was therefore possible this year.

“The system put in place in 2020 and 2021 has been welcomed by the profession, underlines the sales assistant Didier Le Bougeant.

But we also noticed that it accentuated the inequalities between those who had large and small terraces.

Not to mention the noise pollution in some places.

»

In 2022, priority was therefore given to establishments, mainly restaurants, which do not have a year-round terrace at all or only a very small one.

The authorized surface area has also been reduced, from 20 to 10 m², while free access has ended, with each merchant now having to pay a terrace fee.

“We are also taking away a month of terrace because they were authorized until October 31 last year”, complains a restaurateur.

"But it was also an exceptional year and the exception cannot become the rule," replies Didier Le Bougeant.

The last two summers, several streets in the city center had also been made pedestrian in the evening on weekends, allowing cafes and restaurants to deploy their terraces on the public space.

But the device will not be renewed this summer.

“There are often road works during this period and we don't want to add too many constraints”, specifies Didier Le Bougeant.

Economy

Catering: How to succeed in recruiting waiters this summer?

Lille

Lille: No more Covid terraces, place for summer terraces

  • Bar

  • Restaurant

  • Coffee

  • Covid-19

  • Trade

  • reindeer

  • Brittany

  • Coronavirus