They have been part of the Parisian landscape for 450 years, and attract tourists as well as readers and collectors. The booksellers on the banks of the Seine, open-air second-hand bookstores, are even listed in the French intangible cultural heritage. But they could well be threatened: fewer and fewer, the town hall is struggling to recruit.
Only 12 applications for 20 places
There are around a thousand small, well-recognizable green boxes spread across the banks of the Seine, and each location has four. Currently, 220 booksellers operate a location, twenty are still to be filled, some for two years. So the town hall of Paris launched a call for applications for future booksellers, open until February 18.
“In two years without a commission, we only received 12 applications” explains Jérôme Callais, president of the Cultural Association of Booksellers of Paris. “Before, we could have about sixty a year, sometimes even a hundred!” he laments. It was he who asked the town hall to do more publicity around this call. “We’ve been around for 450 years, we’re not going to disappear like that! Booksellers are in Paris what gondoliers are in Venice, we can’t imagine one without the other.”
– Marie Dorcet
Covid-19, events and online sales
Difficult for the president to know the exact causes of the resignations of booksellers, and the lack of enthusiasm for the profession. Admittedly, the Covid-19 pandemic did not help, because when the boxes reopened, the tourists were much less numerous. Before that, the demonstrations of yellow vests in the capital, also scared passers-by. But above all, the profession is threatened by online sales. “Amazon, internet bookstores, everything that is downloadable, obviously it hurts, people read less and come to us less” specifies Jérôme Callais.
A little further, another bookseller also deplores the lack of maintenance on the part of the town hall : “There are broken boxes, tags on the walls, apart from a few cleanings the town hall is not really involved.”
– Marie Dorcet
A bookseller for 30 years, Jérôme Callais nonetheless praises the merits of the profession. “We can make a living doing that, and we have an exceptional setting, despite the vagaries of the weather. But above all, we offer a service, we humanize the profession, we take the time to talk with people. new blood to perpetuate this heritage! “
The call for applications is open until February 18, all the information and procedures can be found on the Paris City Hall website.