Café de la poste in Bagnols: the old “stronghold” of bowlers

Circa 1960, les boulistes disputant un tournoi place Posterlon. Archives municipales de Bagnols-sur-Cèze

While the Café de la Poste, closed since 2022, is preparing to become a tobacconist, Midi Libre dives back into the history of this emblematic place of Bagnolese life.

In a double page devoted to the only café de la Poste, Pierre Menjaud, who was described as "memoir of Bagnols"< /em> and who ran a drugstore on Place Mallet remembers: "As long as old-timers can remember, the Café de la Poste was established there at the beginning of the last century. The postal administration received its numerous customers nearby. It was the domain of the Lyonnaise-style bowl game, played on two juxtaposed platforms in this part of the boulevard. What old Bagnolais does not remember the Zef (zephyr, Editor's note) who pampered these spaces, watering and rolling the sand of the Ancise twice a day. […] In 1960, the Lherme family settled and brought us the culture of rugby. Twenty years later, the family of Loulou Arnaud arrived who formed with his bowling brother, Gabriel Arnaud, mayor of Chusclan, an inseparable and joyful team. Good humor reigns on the premises. But times are changing. We no longer play boules on this stretch of boulevard and the new Bagnolais spirit is winning over the art of living in the South." (source: Mémoires bagnolaises, Pierre Menjaud)