For Antoine and Marion Bancarel, entering the lobby of Le Bailliage Hotel in Salers, central France, in the early morning is like approaching the starting line of a marathon. While early riser guests are eating breakfast, Antoine goes upstairs to check a fireplace in room 8, while Marion checks an electric shutter in room 12. When they took over the establishment in February 2020, both knew it would be down to them to find solutions to a host of daily problems.

In the entrance hall, a series of photographs illustrate the hotel's 60 years of service provided by three generations of one family. That family can be seen surrounded by the rest of their team and more or less famous guests. 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, overlooking the Maronne valley. At the time, she was in charge of the restaurant's reception and kitchen while he ran the bar, the off-track betting station and the gas station in front of the building.

The couple lived at the back of the hotel, and it was not uncommon for their two children, Jean-Charles and Dominique, to hang out among the guests. Their daughter, Dominique, felt a calling and eventually joined her parents' business in the 1970s along with her husband, Jean-Michel, who took cooking classes to work in the kitchen. The collaboration between the two generations continued until 1999, when Charly and Denise decided to retire at almost 70.

Taking it easy is not in the Bancarel family's DNA. When he and Denise decided to go into the hotel business, Charly was already running a coach company. In addition to his work at the Bailliage, he was responsible for the morning and evening school bus service in the canton. His son-in-law Jean-Michel was also involved until Charly sold the transport company a few years later.

Covid-19 closures

In 2019, when Dominique and Jean-Michel announced at a dinner party that they were considering selling the hotel, their nephew had the idea of taking it over, as he "wanted Le Bailliage to stay in the family." Antoine and Marion, then aged 28, worked alongside Dominique and Jean-Michel for a season so as to reassure the bank regarding their ability to run the restaurant.

Weighed down by a €1.5 million loan, the young couple became Le Bailliage's owners in February 2020, six weeks before the first lockdown of the Covid-19 pandemic. One condition for receiving state aid was that businesses had to have begun operating before February 1, which meant Antoine and Marion were not entitled to it.

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