Moving news in the heart of the city of Agde: the newsagent of Carole and Michel Espié will close its doors on December 31st

Carole et Michel Espié devant des rayonnages vides. La fin de l'aventure se rapproche. MIDI LIBRE – MICHEL DESNOS

La maison de la presse de la rue Jean-Roger appartenait à la même famille depuis 71 ans.

When she bought the press on rue Jean-Roger in 1953, Marthe Azaïs Vernière, from a family of café owners from Béziers, certainly did not imagine that a little over 70 years later, the shop would still be lit.

Marthe Azaïs – Vernière, Michel's grandmother. D.R.

Marthe, Marcel, Georgette, Jean-Louis, Michel, Carole…

70 years old, that's precisely the age of his grandson, Michel Espié. A character from the historic center, officially retired in 2016 and who since then, came to give a helping hand to his wife Carole, who is also getting ready to hang up her boots. Between arguments and knowing smiles, the two have always been inseparable. “I was 16 when I met Michel, we got married five years later and I came to work at the store.” Where his father-in-law, Marcel, Michel's father, reigned supreme here. A workaholic supported by his wife Georgette, who passed on values ​​of commitment to his descendants. By hook or by crook. “I started working at the press depot that we had on rue Brescou(today the auto mechanics garage, Editor's note) “, remembers Michel. “At the end of the 60s, beginning of the 70s, with my brother Jean-Louis, we would load the newspapers directly into the wagons that arrived at Agde station around 10 a.m. in the morning, quite late in fact. Mechanization was not what we know today, we had some hell of a day.” Particularly in the summer, with the creation of Cap d'Agde. “We received mountains of foreign newspapers every day: English, German, Dutch, Italian… We would go and deliver everywhere in the town, where we were very much expected.” Some time later, trucking and the moving of the warehouse to the 7-Fonts area made the employees' job easier. But at the time, the press was doing well and the days were long.

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Michel (left) as a child in the 1950s, with his brother Jean-Louis, in front of the family store. D.R.

Jean-Roger Street packed with people in the 80s

For anyone looking at Jean-Roger Street today, it is impossible to imagine what commercial activity was like in the 80s.“In the summer, when the weather was bad, the streets were packed with people. We couldn't get into the store anymore,” Michel recalls. “For the Christmas holidays, there were three of us working,” Carole adds. “We never closed before 8 p.m.” In this commercial artery, Aimé Catanzano's Casa Pepe, the Villa family's sports shop and the Rebous drugstore were also considered safe bets.The good life, then the decline. Inexorable. The equation is well-known: the appearance of large retail outlets on the outskirts, the migration of Agathois from the city centre to the building plots around Mont Saint-Loup, Grau or Cap, and political decisions that have had an impact, such as the move of the town hall's administrative services from the town centre to Mirabel during Pierre Leroy-Beaulieu's last term in office in the mid-1980s. “That's when we felt something was happening” , assures Carole Espié, who nevertheless places the big plunge into the void “in 2004. Since then, we've been hanging on. Today, we're losing more money than we're making.”

Two weeks of vacation… in 40 years!

Since almost everything has closed on rue Jean-Roger, we still come across a few old people who have come to get their newspaper, some who have been hurt by life too, who find a listening ear here over a coffee. A landmark in the neighborhood, open against all odds. Because believe it or not, the couple has taken two short weeks of vacation in 40 years! “And to the mountains”, Michel specifies, without regrets.“The only day of the year when we don't open is May 1st, since the newspapers don't come out. After that, at Christmas, for New Year's Day, we're here. We've always been used to it like that.”

So, when it's time to close the store's door, if they worry a lot less about Carole, busy with her grandson Eliot, many of them wonder what the hyperactive Michel is going to do with his days. “We'll see! One thing's for sure, 70 years on rue Jean-Roger can't be forgotten like that. But one day or another, you have to know when to stop. That won't stop me from dropping by from time to time.” Maybe he can take advantage of this free time to visit Cap d’Agde, where, we swear, he never sets foot, to the point that he could easily get lost there! “I used to deliver newspapers there a long time ago. It’s a great achievement, but my life is the city center.” “And mine too” , Carole exclaims, laughing. Accomplices, until the end.

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