Marc Nieto is still there, in the family butcher’s shop open since 1901. Lovers of his profession and his neighborhood, he is in no hurry to return his apron.
It was Manuel Nieto who gave his name to the butcher’s shop when he took over the business from his in-laws, Mr. and Mrs. Teissier, in the 1930s. The latter were running a shop at Les Caladons when, in 1901, they had the opportunity to buy an old café, Place des Martyrs-de la Résistance. This building became both their home and their new butcher’s shop and still holds its place today.
Manuel married Blanche, the daughter of the house, and both ensured continuity by affixing Nieto’s name to the storefront. Traditionally, running this business was a couple’s affair, the wife worked in the store with her husband. The family stayed in the back room during the day, then upstairs in the evening, the store was open all day.
For Marc Nieto’s parents, it was a little different. Her mother, Lucienne, was a teacher but still passed behind the counter outside of school hours, to lend a hand to Jean, her husband. The latter began the profession at the age of 12, in the midst of the war, under the watchful eye of Manuel, his father.
A difficult job
At that time, the job was very hard, the many butchers in the city, the Galiniers, Serres Mazoyer, Couveihnes … would kill and cut up the animals at the slaughterhouse, a building now replaced by a residence, at the entrance to avenue d’Aigues-Mortes.
Marc Nieto remembers: “The store was our home, so I was always with my parents. I opened the door to customers, I played in the square with the neighbors. It’s the setting of my life ! “Very young, little Marc, nicknamed Marco, had a knife in his hand to try to peel the meat, more attracted by this profession than by the school benches despite his mother’s encouragement.
So here he was, making his debut in 1976 with his father and grandfather. A complete Nieto trilogy. “I spent a CAP and then a year in Paris, it was a necessary step in training. My father took over the business in 1981 and me in 1998. When I was a child I was lucky to have my grandparents and my mother available to take care of me because the job is very demanding… D ‘elsewhere, my children, I have not seen them grow up “, he adds with a touch of regret.
Attached to their clients
“Today, it’s more comfortable, we will make our choice in Nîmes or Montpellier and then the carcasses are delivered to the store.. “Marc and Martine, his wife, are happy in their shop and serve generations of customers who say they are worried about having to do without them one day.
Some have even become friends and don’t hesitate to invite them to their table… Do they offer them a good piece of meat? The menu was not specified… “We also have a clientele of young quadruples who seek quality and say they enjoy our products. What more !”
Very attached to their steeple, to their town center which has become so pleasant in recent years, Marc and Martine would not leave… Even if they will have to think about retirement. “ We are not ready! We are too good.”
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