1986: My Happy Life in Provence

Chapter 231 If there is no opportunity, create one!
Voltaire was a French Enlightenment thinker, writer and philosopher in the 18th century.

Racine was a great French playwright in the 17th century.

Moliere was a 17th century French comedy writer, actor and theatre activist.

Bringing these three great French cultural "masters" together with the United States for discussion, Ronan guessed that this guest must be dissatisfied with the "cultural input" from the United States to Europe in the 80s.

This cultural influence initially started with the food culture, which the French care about the most.

McDonald's first entered the Netherlands in 1971, accelerated its expansion in the 1980s, and opened a flagship store on the Champs-Elysées in Paris in 1983, which was regarded as an 'American lifestyle landmark'.

KFC entered the UK in 1965, but it expanded in Germany and France in the 80s, impacting the European family dining tradition with its "Family Bucket of Fried Chicken".

This American fast food is seen as a "cultural regression" by the Provencals, who are accustomed to sitting at the table for 3-4 hours for dinner.

Resistance to fast food exists not only in France, but also in other European countries.

Batistuta said to Ronan over drinks a few days ago that Italy had just ended a "slow food movement" to fight against fast food culture and emphasize local food traditions.

Of course, this kind of "cultural input" occurs not only in the field of food, but also covers all aspects such as sports, music, film and television.

Putting aside their political stance, some of them did bring impacts to local culture, but not all of them were collisions. In some areas, they were quickly accepted by Europeans.

For example, disco music from the United States swept across European countries and became the most popular music type among people in various countries; for another example, movie series such as "Star Wars" and "Indiana Jones" from Hollywood have greatly enriched the leisure life of Europeans.

However, due to the constant criticism and resistance in the most important area of food, in the 1980s in Europe, one could always hear radical "cultural invasion" remarks.

However, more than 80% of young people are still very open to this.

Ronan listened carefully for a while and found that the things that this old man couldn't stand were indeed related to food culture. It was just a direction that Ronan had not thought of.

"Mutated pumpkins are everywhere in Apt, Aix, Cavallonne and Saint-Remy, and soon this custom will be as well-known to the French as the talking mouse. What a horror!"

When he got excited, the old man, who looked to be in his 50s, kept banging his fists on the table.

As he made quite a bit of noise and his voice was so loud, he inevitably aroused dissatisfaction among guests at other tables.

"If you don't even know the name of Mickey Mouse, don't talk about 'cultural export', okay? That's not your concern. Why don't you pay attention to your sleeve? It's already fallen into the soup." A male customer at two tables away protested dissatisfiedly.

The old man seemed to be temporarily deaf, and said to his tablemate in an even more excited tone:
"And ketchup! This rubbish sauce with a lot of additives has gradually replaced mushroom sauce on the Provencal table. What a shame!!"

The ketchup this person is talking about is the famous Heinz ketchup.

This ketchup brand, founded in the United States in 1876, arrived in Europe along with the American fast food culture in the 80s.

However, as far as Ronan knows, this thing has not yet become popular in Provence.

He turned his eyes away from that direction and complained to himself:
This is an unprofessional 'expert'.

Provence is full of experts, and it is not uncommon for those who know a little to speak as freely as university professors, especially when they are drunk.

But the old man could never have guessed that a few years later the talking mouse he mentioned would build a huge theme park in Paris, and young people from all over Europe would flock to the park.

Therefore, we should look at culture from multiple perspectives and avoid being too extreme.

Isabel asked curiously:

"What is this 'mutated' pumpkin he's talking about?"

Another waiter thought for a moment:
"Maybe some kind of fast food made from pumpkin? I don't know."

Ronan asked them in surprise:

"You don't know 'Halloween'?"

Isabel & the waiters: "What is Halloween?"

Ronan didn’t have a deep understanding of culture in his previous life, and of course he didn’t have a deep understanding of it in this life either.

He only remembered that Halloween was indeed a foreign festival, but it had been accepted by most French people in his previous life.

Halloween on October 30 and All Saints' Day on November 1 are combined to form 'Halloween Weekend'.

But he couldn't remember when it was accepted.

Without the Internet and no place to look up information near Lourmarin, Ronan could only ask around to figure out what Halloween meant to the people of Provence today.

"Pumpkin lanterns?" Cornell, who came to drink, widened his eyes. "Is that also a traditional Chinese craft? Using soaked pumpkins to make lanterns? But it doesn't sound difficult. Maybe I can also inherit it?"

Ronan didn't get any useful information from Cornell, so he went to ask Theo, who had a child.

Maybe Anna has heard of the game 'trick or treat'?
"Children can eat candy for free?" Theo threw away his cigarette excitedly, "Tell me where I can sign up for this kind of good thing. Anna eats several kilograms of Apte preserves every month, which is more expensive than my monthly cigarette money!"

Well, Ronan quickly came to a conclusion.

No one in Lourmarin had ever heard of Halloween, but he remembered the guest saying that 'mutated pumpkins' could be seen everywhere in Apt, Aix, Cavallonne and Saint-Remy, so he asked the artists in the restaurant who came from all over Provence.

"You can already see Halloween windows on the Cours Mirabeau in Aix, where many people are celebrating Halloween."

"Yes, some people in Saint-Remy celebrate Halloween, and we will organize a Halloween party on that day. It is a horror-themed party! This is already the third year!"

"In Cavallón, not only do some people use pumpkins for decoration, but some also use melons. This is what we insist on!"

After communicating with well-informed and advanced-thinking artists, Ronan finally understood something about Halloween.

Halloween had spread back to Europe by 1986.

Why do we say "passed back"? Because a real cultural expert told Ronan that Halloween was invented by the Celts in Ireland in the 5th century BC.

Irish immigrants brought it to the United States in the 19th century, and the festival spread back to Europe from the United States in the 20th century.

The media of the return is also very interesting - in 1980, the French children's channel began to broadcast Disney cartoons, and the concept of Halloween returned to Europe for the first time.

This concept was later reinforced through children's films such as "ET" and creative themed advertisements for fast-moving consumer goods brands such as Coca-Cola, which were broadcast on European TV stations.

Therefore, Halloween is only popular in some big cities with high television penetration rates, but not in small mountain villages such as Luberon.

In order to get more and more complete information.

Ronan then contacted Gabriel, the candy king of Apte.

Halloween is closely related to candy, and Gabriel should be able to provide Ronan with more intuitive help.

"Of course I know Halloween! It is a very important node for us every year. In the past two years, through the promotion of Halloween, our sales increased by 15% and 20% respectively. As far as I know, even if it is not a candy category, as long as it can be combined with Halloween, there will be a huge increase in data."

Ronan asked in surprise:

"So, there are many brands in Luberon that promote themselves around Halloween?"

Gabriel said categorically:
"No, the people of Luberon do not celebrate this festival, it is for other regions."

Ronan thought about it.

Create opportunities where there are no opportunities.

For the Provencal people who love to join in the fun, as long as there is fun to be had, they will definitely come.

Let’s try it with Halloween first. If it goes well, Ronan’s restaurant will have no shortage of promotional means for the whole year.

China has many more festivals than the United States. He can boldly carry out "Chinese cultural invasion" in the future!
Ronan looked across the street at Gabrielle's candy store and asked:
"How are your business going in that shop in Lourmarin?"

Ten minutes later, Ronan hung up the phone in the restaurant and returned to the kitchen with a smile on his face.

Flakini asked:
"Are we still cutting the vegetables normally today? Is there anything I need to pay attention to?"

Ronan picked up his royal kitchen knife and made a beautiful knife dance:
"Today I'm going to teach you something new!"

After the restaurant opened, Luo Tianhai and Feng Zhen no longer attended the weekly Lourmarin and Mena Village markets.

Ronan will take the rest of the restaurant staff with him.

Just as Luo Tianhai said, the restaurant might just lose a group of customers without Ronan, but without Luo Tianhai and Feng Zhen it would be completely unable to operate.

But this is also what Ronan wants to see - to gradually reduce the restaurant's dependence on him so that he can have more energy to do other things.

The market is the restaurant's most important daily promotional tool. Don't underestimate these two mornings every week, as they can directly convert a lot of customers. Many people go to the restaurant after eating sweet and sour pork and boxed lunches.

However, at the market on the last weekend of October, Ronan changed the "slogan" again.

The stall owners around here have become accustomed to this guy whose business is growing bigger and bigger and he has to change his promotional content every one or two months.

First, we sold the 'specialty' rosé wine from Provence.

Later promoted the Chinese restaurant.

The restaurant has just opened for a short time, what new things are you going to promote?

"On October 10th, our restaurant will hold a Halloween party. There will be fun entertainment from morning to night. Whether you are an adult or a child, you can find your own fun. There will also be a themed bonfire party in the evening. Bring your children to participate!"

The female stall owner opposite Ronan, who was addicted to smoking, didn't care about her stall and came over to ask Ronan:

"What is Halloween?"

While frying the pot-fried meat, Ronan patiently explained:
"It's a new festival that's very popular among young people in Aix, Apt, and even Paris. It's really fun. Do you want to come? I'll reserve a seat for you in advance."

The female shop owner looked delighted.

Aix and Apt are the fashion gateways of Provence, while Paris is the international fashion capital.

The festivals popular in these cities must be extremely fashionable.

And the residents living nearby all know that Ronan's restaurant is always frequented by young men and women dressed fashionably and well.

Some people even joked in private:

For French fashion, look to Paris; for Provence fashion, look to Aix, but in Luberon, they also have their own 'fashion capital' - that is Lourmarin, which has recently attracted numerous artists to visit.

The most fashionable place in Lourmarin is Ronan’s Chinese restaurant!

"Okay, save four seats for me." The female stall owner agreed readily.

"Okay, I'll definitely reserve the best seat for you." Ronan said with a smile.

After the female stall owner left, Isabel, who came to help, muttered softly:

"There will definitely be long queues on October 10th. You've 'tricked' another person into coming. How many seats did you promise to reserve for today? Thirty or forty? Even without natural customer flow, our seats will be full."

"Fool?" Ronan gave a look that said 'you don't understand'. "I'll take people to start preparations when we get back this afternoon. I'm warning you, don't let your desire to play get in the way when the day comes."

(End of this chapter)