Summer town, winter town

We arrived in Pézenas at the very end of October, 2011 & it seemed that nearly everything in & around the historic center of town was closed. At first we thought it was because it was Sunday evening, but then Monday came & most things were still closed (not unusual in France). The next day was a holiday -- All Saints Day -- so the closures made sense then also. But, we were surprised that in the days that followed, the vast majority of the "old town" was closed up tight, & rather gloomy. Some of the shops & cafés opened for a couple of weeks around Christmas, but then it was quiet again. We could stroll through the streets & not see an open store or another pedestrian. 

Then, as spring came, things started opening. It was fun seeing what was behind all those closed doors & shuttered windows. Merchants were busy renovating shops & displaying merchandise, & the cafés were building their outdoor seating areas (usually wooden platforms on top of the uneven cobblestone streets) in anticipation of the warmer weather.

Tourists started coming to Pézenas & the sleepy little town had some life once again. By the time summer was in full swing, the narrow, twisty streets of the old town were crowded & sometimes it was challenging to make our way home, as by June we had moved into our apartment in the old town, & these streets were our neighborhood. We could overhear conversations in a multitude of languages & people were ooh-ing & aahh-ing over the architecture & history of our town.

In July & August many shops participate in the nocturnes & stay open until midnight on Wed. & Fri. nights, & there are events happening all around town. Friends had told us how much different it was in Pézenas during the summer months, but we hadn't believed it until we we experienced it ourselves.

As the summer wound down, so did the activity & buzz. By November, things were quiet again, almost like a bear in hibernation.

As the following spring arrived, what we found interesting was that the vast majority of shops that opened were not the same ones that had occupied those spaces the year before. All that hard work to lay tile floors, paint walls, etc. for just one summer season, only to do it all again the following year. Some businesses moved to new locations, & sometimes someone opened a completely different type of shop the next year. What do they do with the merchandise from the previous year?

It's also a bit strange -- from an American perspective, at least -- that a shop owner wouldn't do even a tiny bit of market research before opening a shop. For instance, there is a shop here that sells a lot of things made of cork (umbrellas, trivets, aprons, purses) & other natural materials. They are open all year, so when another shop opened a couple of streets away, selling a lot of the identical merchandise, we were surprised that they hadn't noticed the first shop, which essentially was a direct competitor & presumably had a customer base.

There was a food shop (épicerie fine) where we had shopped a couple of times that had a sale because they were closing. The owner said that it was too hard to make a living because more shops that sold similar merchandise had opened in town. Then, after closing for a short while, she opened a clothing store in the same location.

What is truly strange is the "moving" bookstore. It's open all year, but is in one location during the winter months, & then moves across the street to its summer location, & then does it all again for the winter. I'm sure there's a logical reason for this back & forth movement, but we can't figure it out. Then, this spring they opened a 2nd small shop around the corner & we wonder whether it will close at the end of the summer.

Now, our third spring here, it's been interesting watching the stores open, wondering what each will sell.