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PART 2
The Restaurant in Terms of Places and Geographical Spaces

Introduction to Part 2

In Géographie du commerce, in 1977, Jacqueline Beaujeu-Garnier and Annie Delobez defined trade as follows: “Trade is a complex process that encompasses everything from production to consumption” [BEA 77, p. 7]. “Trade is the transfer of possession for consideration”, they clarify [BEA 77, p. 9]. In the case of catering, it is a transmission following a culinary transformation. For both geographers, trade exists because of the 3 Ds: a difference that leads to exchange, a desire to sell and buy, and a physical and ideal distance [BEA 77, p. 10]. They refer to a bourgeois model of commerce: “Consumer behavior and sales practices in Western Europe have a family resemblance, reflecting a certain European bourgeois culture.” [BEA 77, p. 50, author’s translation]

Regarding the logic of location, Jacqueline Beaujeu-Garnier and Annie Delobez point out that “The purpose of any commercial activity is the attendance of a ‘clientele’ […]. The golden rule of localization must therefore theoretically be the search for the optimum number of visitors” [BEA 77, p. 141, author’s translation]. There are time, resource and cost constraints that hinder desirability. This search for the optimum attendance results in a need for visibility for restaurants.

Thus, restaurants are overwhelmingly located in the center and along the main streets, avenues and boulevards of cities (and villages), which constitute structural axes, routes of penetration and convergence. They are vectors of the geographical diffusion of restaurants (see Part 1). They are also located at crossroads and in the squares of cities (and villages), which are hubs, crossroads and points of convergence. These geographical locations allow maximum visibility.

In addition, many restaurants have a corner plot, a layout on two or even three sides (bipartite or tripartite facade). This is panoramic positioning on the square itself and on the two adjacent streets.