One Street: closed for business

For some considerable time by the look of it! I struggled a bit for a blip today -- my heart sank when I loaded the photos from the camera and this is the best I could do.

This was once a boulangerie, and quite a smart one by the look of the shopfront -- it's just a few steps away from the still-living bakery on Place Cabrié itself. Just round the corner there is what was once a small general store, also closed for decades. These little streets must once have buzzed with life, but now they are silent and empty, the buildings boarded up, vandalised, and crumbling.

Preparations for the demolition work have just started in the last week, but in this oldest part of town archaeological investigation has to be done first, so it will be a while before anything actually comes down. Let's hope that the redevelopment will bring life back to a part of the town that has been neglected for decades.