France

We are currently on holiday in Southern France and in the Auvergne. Aside from the bigger cities we have visited several little villages and towns that were supposed to be beautiful or special places ("Les plus belles villes de France" and others). I was hoping to find villages filled with life, street cafés, shops, restaurants and such. But most of the towns seem to be completed lifeless. Restaurants and shops are boarded up and closed, doors locked, not even people on the streets (just one or two people walking their dogs). What happened to France? Where is the street life? Where are the old men playing boule in the places? Did we miss anything?