When Antoine and Marion Bancarel enter the lobby of the Le Bailliage hotel in Salers (Cantal) early in the morning, their marathon has only just begun. While the early guests are having breakfast, Antoine goes up to check a fireplace in room 8 and Marion checks an electric shutter in room 12. When they took over the establishment in February 2020, they both knew that they would have to pay a multitude of daily problems.
In the entrance, a series of photographs illustrates sixty years of the hotel’s activity, passed down over three generations. The family poses there surrounded by the rest of the team or more or less famous clients. Denise and Charly Bancarel, Antoine’s grandparents, had the place built in 1962, at the entrance to this medieval village located at an altitude of 950 meters, which dominates the Maronne valley. At the time, she took care of the reception and the kitchen of the restaurant; he manages the bar, the PMU, and the gas station installed in front of the building.
The couple stays at the back of the hotel and it is not uncommon for their two children, Jean-Charles and Dominique, to hang out among the customers. The vocation was born in their daughter, Dominique, who ended up joining her parents’ business in the 1970s, with her husband, Jean-Michel, who then began training in the kitchen to get behind the stove. The collaboration between the two generations continued until 1999, when Charly and Denise decided to retire, at almost 70 years old.
Slowing down is not in the DNA of the Bancarel family. When he and Denise started the hotel business, Charly was already at the head of a coach company. In parallel with his activity at the Bailliage, he takes care of the canton’s school bus every morning and evening. His son-in-law Jean-Michel will also be there, until Charly separates from the transport company a few years later.
Closure imposed
In 2019, when Dominique and Jean-Michel announced during a meal that they were considering selling the hotel, the idea of taking it back germinated in their nephew, who “wanted[t] that the Bailliage remains in the family”. Antoine and Marion, then aged 28, worked for a season alongside Dominique and Jean-Michel to reassure the banks about their ability to manage the restaurant.
Loaded with a loan of 1.5 million euros, the young couple became the owner of the Bailliage in February 2020, six weeks before the first confinement due to the Covid-19 pandemic. One of the conditions to receive state aid is to have started your activity before 1er February, Antoine and Marion are therefore not entitled to it.
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