South of France wine bar accepts payment in Bitcoin - and awaits a client
It is not a gimmick but a genuine appeal to younger clientele, say owners
The wine bar is now one of very few shops in the area to accept Bitcoin (although the transaction is made between phones, not card machine)
ADragan/Shutterstock
A wine bar in the south of France is now accepting the cryptocurrency Bitcoin as payment, its owners have announced.
"We're taking advantage of having a new, young and hip prime minister to enthusiastically announce to the world that from now on we'll be accepting Bitcoin. Doesn't that just blow your mind?” said Hélène Boinard and Thierry Guichard, owners of the La part de l’ange bar in Narbonne (Aude, Occitanie), to l’Independant.
The statement is ironic; newly-appointed Prime Minister Michel Barnier is 73.
Read also: Michel Barnier is named as France's new prime minister
Yet, the announcement is genuine, with the bar owners also writing on social media: “You want to spend your cryptocurrencies wisely…Good news in Narbonne, your wine bar La part de l'ange now accepts Bitcoin.”
Bitcoin (BTC) is the world’s most popular cryptocurrency, and incredibly strong. At the time of writing, one Bitcoin is equivalent to just over €51,407 (EUR). This means that for a drink costing €10, the Bitcoin amount due would be just BTC 0.00019. Other cryptocurrencies include Ethereum and Tether.
The amount would be paid for digitally, by scanning a QR code. Purchasers must, of course, own Bitcoin to make the transaction. You can buy and manage Bitcoin (and other cryptocurrencies) on cryptocurrency marketplaces online, such as Coinbase or Crypto Exchange.
‘It’s very simple’
Only a few thousand shops in France currently accept cryptocurrency as payment (despite around 12% of people in France estimated to own some Bitcoin). These include the Comptoir Brunet wine shop in Lyon, which started accepting the payment type in 2021.
In Narbonne, Mr Guichard - a former journalist - has said that the system is not a ‘gimmick’, and is perfectly secure. It simply allows people to make payments without a banking intermediary, he said, admitting that “it's a bit of a change”.
“We got interested in Bitcoin out of sheer curiosity, and started looking at how it worked,” he said. “We got in touch with Lyzi, the crypto payment application. It's very simple. You scan from phone to phone, and then we receive the amount in euros.”
Mr Guichard does not own any cryptocurrency himself and has no intention of doing so, he said.
“Admittedly, there aren't many places in France where you can pay this way,” he conceded. “We're practically the only ones in the Aude and Hérault regions. Only in Talence (Gironde) do all the town's shopkeepers accept this. You have to move with the times. We're just getting started.”
He said that the payment option may be of interest to young people, who are especially attracted by the new technology, and the fact that it sidesteps bank charges.
So far, no-one has used the payment method in the bar, but Mr Guchard believes it will become more popular as news spreads. The shop will also take the payment method on its online store.
“We’re now going to add it to our website, where customers will be able to pay for their orders with Bitcoin,” said the shopkeeper. “A sticker on the shop's till will make this possibility a reality in-store too.”
