The town hall wants to keep them away from the Seine for security reasons but there is no question for Parisian second-hand booksellers packing up. The centuries-old profession still gives rise to numerous vocations.
Booksellers and Paris are a Verlaine-style love story. It starts with tenderness and desire but it could end badly… A standoff has been underway for several months. On the one hand, the police headquarters and the town hall order them to leave the quays of the Seine temporarily, for security reasons, during the opening ceremony of the 2024 Olympic Games. On the other, enthusiasts, present since less than 450 years old, and who do not intend to move an inch.
On the docks, we don’t talk about ” stands“, but of ” boxes“, green, which saw people parade: ” some are 120 years old easily“, boasts Sylvie Mathias. She is twice as young, 61 years old, and has been a second-hand bookseller for 25 years on the Quai des Grands-Augustins.” We have 220 booksellers and we manage 900 boxes. The Seine is surrounded by kilometers of books!”, the saleswoman happily summarizes.
A daily life between passion, noise and self-entrepreneurship
She explains that everyone is required to have three boxes of books and another box “where we can put small flea markets and objects for tourists. The town hall is supposed to watch over excesses.” Sylvie Mathias is also treasurer of the Cultural Association of Booksellers of Paris ” We can earn an honorable living, around the minimum wage. But there are periods when it can be much less.” confides the treasurer. “Book sellers are self-employed and it’s better not to get sick.”
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The working environment is not easy either: it’s bustling on the quays of Paris. “It’s tiring! In the evening when I come home I need a good half hour of silence. And as far as pollution is concerned, I don’t know. I still have lungs in good condition, we we’ll see!” says Sylvie Mathias.
“There is a soul that emerges thanks to the second-hand booksellers, even when the boxes are closed”
Sylvie Mathiasat franceinfo
Proof in any case that the soul of second-hand booksellers endures, this year the Paris town hall received 42 applications for 17 vacant locations. Among the new additions, there is Laurent Bussière, 47, a second-hand bookseller since August: “I loved books and then the freedom, also of this profession, in an era where we talk a lot about unhappiness at work. I worked in an office for a few years and I always found it unhealthy to work sitting all day.”
Removing the boxes demotivates candidates
Passionate yes, but not candid. Laurent Bussière believes that succession is not necessarily assured: “What will happen next year for the Olympic Games is a sword of Damocles hanging over us. The removal of the boxes could demoralize future candidates and put many old and old booksellers into early retirement. who do not see their boxes emptied, only to return them six months later.”
Especially since the expenses are sometimes substantial: ” We do not pay for the location, however the boxes are our responsibility. It represents between a few thousand euros and much more.”
“We may not be like pandas, the last of an endangered species, but we have to be careful of book sellers!”
Laurent Bussiereat franceinfo
He sees himself as a bookseller for a good while yet: “I don’t really know what retirement means for us, other than arthritis!” he says with humor.
A little further, meeting with “the neighborhood chatterbox”, Anouchka, almost 80 years old, gray hair and no arthritis or retirement on the horizon. She has been a second-hand bookseller on the Quai des Grands Augustins since 1972.I am one of the oldest. I too could be classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site!” jokes the octogenarian dynamic. Since 2019, second-hand booksellers have been listed as France’s intangible cultural heritage. But the Cultural Association of Booksellers aims internationally: “That way, we would truly be immutable,” explains Anouchka.
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Because, when we talk about the future of the profession, Anouchka’s smile briefly fades: “It’s dark. Before we had a regular clientele, that’s no longer the case. It’s because of the internet, Amazon,” she accuses. “And then people are tired, they don’t move around anymore!” she continues in her frank manner. When we asked him for advice for young candidates, he came up with everything: “We can all be a good bookseller,” she assures us, before adding mischievously: Except the one who makes a face!