Pierre Beruti, owner of the bar-tabac in the Var village of La Motte, is a popular figure thereabouts and as he says his establishment offers "the only bit of life you'll find in this place and everyone comes in at some time". And that includes the local curé who pops in every so often to buy his cigarettes (don't be shocked: St Pius X smoked cigars and in a Sussex church is depicted puffing away in a stained glass window). But now Beruti, who runs the bar with his son, complains that he's been "shot down by busybodies".

So what's happened? The local authorities have told him he must close down because he's "too close to the church". It seems some minor official unearthed an arrêt préfectoral from 1978 which said that a bar must be at least 40 metres distant from a place of worship; Pierre Beruti's débit de boissons is only 38 metres from the church door. "It's mad," he says. "That figure of 40 metres is as the crow flies. Anyone who walks between here and the church in the normal way has to cover about 80 metres. I'm appealing this but they do seem determined to close me down. I'm not blaming the priest, of course. He's not happy about having to get in his car when he runs out of fags."

From Riviera Reporter 124 - Dec 2007/Jan 2008

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