The Press in France | When Paris is a Quebec celebration

We have known for a long time that Paris is a party, but in recent days, this party had a very Quebecois flavor.

Particularly Saturday evening, when there were so many invitations left and right that the Quebec delegation to the Paris Book Festival was scattered between several festivities, some of which were improvised. I had to jump in taxis to show up at as many places as possible, with an unexpected accomplice, Anne-Isabelle Tremblay, head of the Gaston-Miron library, up for all the adventures.

In this crazy Parisian night which almost killed me with jetlag, my only regret is to have missed, because my schedule did not allow me, something which has nothing to do with the world of books : the show Royal Pub in homage to the Cowboys Fringants, presented at the Grand Rex, a legendary place. Anne-Isabelle’s friends, admirers of the group, wrote to her that the public was absolutely delirious. After the show, as if we didn’t want it to end, we sang the songs Cowboys Fringants in the streets of Paris, on this scorching evening which looked much more like summer than spring. By a strange coincidence, the group was nevertheless going to be part of my evening during a karaoke in the company of the Quebec Minister of Culture, Mathieu Lacombe.

Watch an Instagram video of Cowboys Fringants

But let’s start at the beginning. There was the “Festival ball” on the mezzanine above the Quebec Pavilion, at the Grand Palais Éphémère.

For three days, this VIP section of the Paris Book Festival, adorned with the word “Quebec” on an impossible-to-miss blue background, was a real refuge from the crowds of this show, where we would have thought we were at home, but the Eiffel Tower looked at us.

No one resisted the urge to photograph this tourist symbol par excellence during the festival and I include myself in that. In this pavilion which was never deserted, I saw no activity without an audience, and practically no writers twiddling their thumbs at their tables during the signings. I saw visitors who bought not one or two books, but 12, especially on Sunday before the event closed.

“People are curious, respectful and attentive,” noted Gabrielle Boulianne-Tremblay, author of The daughter of herself, reassured to have not once received inappropriate questions about her identity as a trans woman. She became friends with the poet Denise Desautels who, frankly, everyone loves here. A national treasure.

She participated in a poetry reading at the end of the day on Saturday bringing together Denise, Hélène Dorion, Gabrielle Filteau-Chiba, Valérie Forgues, Annie Lafleur, Rita Mestokosho, Rodney Saint-Éloi and Larry Tremblay. A French poetry enthusiast, Théo, who is also a lyric singer, was sitting in front of me and, I swear, he was wiggling non-stop, in total receptivity. He told me that Hélène Dorion was “an absolute earthquake” for him, after seeing her on TV. With this reading, he fell in love with Gabrielle Boulianne-Tremblay and Denise Desautels.

It kept coming up in conversations: the quality of the meetings, the mixes on the panels, both in the animation and the guests. Even if Quebec had its pavilion, it did not remain in a private space, and that was the beauty of it.

But back to that Saturday night fever. Marie Hélène Poitras, winner of the Governor General’s Prize for her collection Galumpf at Alto, heated up the dance floor – everyone in the community has known his DJ talents for a long time. Can you imagine dancing with a view of the illuminated Eiffel Tower at night?

But then I was at the Librairie du Québec, which received until late those who wanted to come and take a look. The writer Larry Tremblay introduced me to his German translator, the Austrian Michael von Killisch-Horn, who is also the translator of Michel Jean. Michael told me that he was involved in a series of translation contracts with indigenous authors, particularly from Mémoire d’encrier. He has strong ties with Quebec, deepened since the 2021 Frankfurt Book Fair, where Canada was in the spotlight, and he will soon introduce German speakers to An Antane Kapesh, Virginia Pésémapéo Bordeleau, Natasha Kanapé Fontaine …

The same evening, there was the “Party at Hoki” at the Grévin museum for Dany Laferrière’s birthday, with hand-picked guests. The Immortal of the French Academy, who turned 71 on April 13, was at the opening of the exhibition on Saturday afternoon A nomadic heart, previously presented in Montreal, which offers plates from its graphic novels outdoors, this time on the Pont des Arts and the square of the Institut de France until May 12. We sang to him “My dear Dany, it’s your turn… », to the tune of People of the country by Gilles Vigneault, which, according to his agent Camille Robitaille, destabilized some French people who do not know this very local version of humming a birthday.

Then, at 9 p.m., at the Grévin museum, in a theatrical atmosphere, surrounded by wax statues, Dany read and had people read extracts from her recent book Party at Hoki’s. Some who were there didn’t quite come back from the experience. Notably Alain Farah, who told me that it looked like Eyes Wide Shut by Stanley Kubrick, but in a literary version. I arrived at the end of the evening when everyone was being kicked out and Dany showed me her graffiti added to dozens of others in the toilets: “April 13, 2024 was my birthday at Grévin. Who says better ? » It really depends on taste, because there is nothing more creepy than wax statues of famous people, in my opinion, but only in Paris, and with Dany, can you experience things like that.

It was midnight, I was thinking of going to bed when Anne-Isabelle learned that the Minister of Culture, Mathieu Lacombe, was going to the La noche bar in the Pigalle district, with the writer Patrick Senécal, who is always looking for karaoke .

We jumped in a taxi and then screamed French hits in a damp, smoky cellar (Dana’s tribe), because songs in English are not that winning in Paris at karaoke, even if Senécal gave himself entirely for Sad But True by Metallica. In any case, I can tell you that our minister has a beautiful voice after hearing him sing Downwind of Céline and Garou, but I left at 3:30 a.m. before he could perform for his request, The demonstration Cowboys Fringants.

All this to tell you that on Sunday at the festival, there were many Quebecers upset from having slept on the clothesline; Despite everything, they respected their commitments until the last minute of the show.

Being the guest of honor doesn’t change the world, but I understood that the whole point of this event was the meetings, the relationships that we build in person. This is an even starker truth in a post-pandemic world.

Like many participants in recent days, I have added many people to my contact list, I have new story ideas, and a better understanding of the publishing game. Karine Vachon, general director of the National Association of Book Publishers (ANEL), gave me a brief overview of this adventure. If all this was able to come together somewhat at the last minute, it is because there had been expertise in the field for years, and we accepted the invitation because it met specific expectations. We didn’t say yes just to say yes to some sort of honor. The Paris Book Festival was an opportunity to create links with the media, booksellers, and decision-makers of cultural events elsewhere than in Paris. “The Festival had a well-structured organization and a team we trusted, they delivered what they promised us,” she says.

The ball is now in the court of the Quebec and Canadian cultural ministries. It doesn’t happen every year, being the guest country of honor at a major trade fair, and we don’t want it to happen every year either, otherwise, it would no longer be an event. However, we must continue the Quebec presence in multiple events, in bookstores, in conferences, in short, stay on the ground, where we are really taking our place. “We must support the editorial strategies of the houses,” says Karine Vachon, who recalls that the envelope of the Canada Book Fund has not increased for 20 years, despite the multiplication of publishing houses which are going to the front in a fierce market.

What I felt at the Paris Book Festival is that not only are we ready for what comes next, but the public is too. And that this long-term vision will have to be supported. “Readers are not looking for Quebec in our books, they are looking for good books,” summarizes Karine Vachon. And there is no doubt that we have a lot to offer them.