Au Normandy restaurant closure in Sées, Orne, Digi Mart USA News (Sées, Orne, France): Employees of the Au Normandy restaurant received an unpleasant surprise on Monday, November 2, 2026, when they arrived to find the doors of the establishment in Sées (Orne) closed. A notice on the door stated that the restaurant, located opposite the cathedral, was closed “for an indefinite period.”
The restaurant’s Facebook page also disappeared from social media over the weekend. According to Ouest France, the restaurant will not reopen: it has been placed in liquidation by the Alençon commercial court.
The restaurant’s manager has not provided any updates. Denis Arnoulin, the owner of the building, told L’Orne hebdo that he discovered the closure like everyone else on Monday morning.
He said an employee called him after arriving and being unable to reach the manager.
Arnoulin ran the establishment with his wife for 20 years before transferring the business to Sébastien Lecervoisier in 2010. He said he has no news from his tenant either.
“We always had good relations, and he always paid his rent on time and in full,” he said.
Arnoulin knew the restaurant had been in financial difficulty since 2015, when it filed for insolvency, and that it had been placed under judicial reorganization earlier this year. The business had also been forced to recover from a serious fire in 2013.
He had believed the restaurant was doing reasonably well since then, while acknowledging the broader difficulties facing the restaurant sector, including significant recruitment problems.
In 2017, Lecervoisier introduced a recruitment bonus and launched a job notice to find staff. “Finding staff is increasingly difficult, especially for weekend service,” Arnoulin said.
He recalled that the restaurant once employed about twenty people in his time and was the largest in the department by revenue, while it now has about ten employees. “Restaurants have changed a great deal,” he said.
Arnoulin hopes a buyer will emerge but says he will not be the one to take over. “At 66, there is no question of my returning to work,” he said.
With the liquidation, a court-appointed trustee has been named. According to Arnoulin, the trustee will launch a call for bids to find a successor.
If no buyer comes forward, the restaurant will close permanently and its equipment will be sold at auction. “I sincerely hope it does not come to that.”
