Local cheese boards were served with charcuterie. Fruit cocktails with or without alcohol. Despite the rain this summer evening, we had to jostle on Place Jean-Gaissa, just opposite the town hall of Isola. After months of work on the ground floor of the Le Touring hotel, a few days ago we inaugurated the new bar-restaurant in this village of 300 inhabitants, at an altitude of almost 800 m north of the Alpes-Maritimes. . A small event. And a first step. Next spring, the twelve rooms of this establishment, which has been shut down since 2014, will also be able to welcome customers again. As for the bakery, right next door, the town hall had finally resolved to buy the walls – it was in 2019 – and to launch a call for expressions of interest.
A commercial lease was granted for nine years to a young 23-year-old entrepreneur. “We have to do it that way. What individual would like to invest several hundred thousand euros in a hotel that has had no balance sheet for a long time? But we know very well that it will work, assures the mayor [SE] Mylène Agnelli elected in 2020. We have requests all the time. Isola is ideally located. Between Isola 2000 and Auron. »
Driven by the attractiveness of its own ski resort and its neighbour, the village in the hinterland of Nice is also a must for the floods of tourists, many of them on motorbikes, who take the road to the Col de the bonnet. However, the balance remains precarious. Stuck at the bottom of a Mercantour valley, at the crossroads of the Tinée and the Guercha torrent, the town lost a hundred inhabitants between 2009 and 2019. It also saw the disappearance of several businesses. Yet already rare.
The fear of seeing the grocery store disappear
Facing the Church of Saint-Pierre-aux-liens, on the square where the fountain no longer flows, due to the drought, the shutters of the (other) Hôtel de France are closed. There too, the rooms have been empty for about ten years. A little further down the alleys, the front of the butcher’s shop is only there for the memory. And last November, the closure of the only grocery store in the village raised fears of the worst. Julie Martin, the manager, then pregnant, had nevertheless tried to find a replacement for the time to pamper. Without success.
“In the end, I had to quit in a hurry. The end of my pregnancy was very complicated and I gave birth at only six months, “she confides to 20 minutes. On the spot, everyone knew it. News travels fast in Isola. “We tried to get news as soon as possible, explains a resident. Then, we did what we could for the races. “Once a week, the town hall had set up shuttles to supermarkets several tens of minutes away: “It was really not optimal, especially for the elderly. »
So Julie Martin came to raise the curtain of her shop as soon as she could. A little less than a month ago. “I didn’t really have a choice,” slips the 38-year-old mother. I know everyone here. And I know very well that a grocery store is very important in the life of a village. If there isn’t, people leave. »
The shopkeeper, who buys fruit and vegetables from producers “most often from the region” sells almost everything she needs, which she stores in the adjacent premises which once housed a haberdashery. On its stalls, there are even memory cards for cameras. Postcards and souvenirs. And the 30-something is also a tobacconist. “Julie is also the only person some seniors see during their day,” testifies Marcel, a loyal customer.
The dynamic has become “positive” again
A den. A point of contact and ultimately “much more than a grocery store” that the mayor hopes will remain as long as possible. Especially since Mylène Agnelli echoes the arrival of new residents “for a few months”. “The population has become a little younger. There are couples who have settled, assures the chosen one. Covid-19 may have helped. People have been there for the holidays and they have realized that with teleworking life in the mountains could be a good option. »
The dynamic would therefore have become “positive” again in the village. A summer restaurant (also entrusted by the town hall to a manager after a call for expressions of interest) has reopened its doors for a second season near the Lac des Neiges campsite.
And the projects continue. “I talk about it with my colleagues in the surrounding villages. And it’s the same everywhere. We are obliged to do the maximum constantly trying to renew ourselves. To propose new things,” explains the dynamic mayor of Isola. The former Hotel de France must be transformed. By 2024 or even 2025, it should accommodate accommodation for seasonal workers in the resort, which is sorely lacking. Aquavallée, the swimming pool and its complex including sauna, hammam and sports hall, under the responsibility of the mixed economy company Nice Mercantour Stations, should also benefit from major works in the years to come.