The Bouquinistes of Paris, France, are booksellers of used and antiquarian books and rare vintage postcards who ply their trade along large sections of the banks of the Seine: on the right bank from the Pont Marie to the Quai du Louvre, and on the left bank from the Quai de la Tournelle to Quai Voltaire. The Seine is thus described as 'the only river in the world that runs between two bookshelves'. [1]
The term "bouquiniste" appears in the dictionary of the Académie française in 1762. [2] The term "boucquain", which derived from the Flemish boeckijn ("little book"), appeared in 1459 and is recorded as "bouquin" towards the end of the 16th century. [3] The first mention of the word "bouquin" appears in 1580, while the term Bouquinistes refers to a second-hand book dealer. [4] : 11
Itinerant booksellers had sold books along the Pont Neuf by the early 17th century, but by 1756 the Council of State forbade the selling of books on the Pont Neuf to allow traffic flow which pushed the booksellers to set up their wares along the Seine. [4] : 12
In 1859, concessions were implemented by the city of Paris and the bouquinistes were permitted to be established at fixed points. Each one is entitled to 10 meters of railing for an annual fee of 26, 35 F and a 25 F licence. By 1866, Paul Lacroix fought for the rights of the booksellers to sell along the quays, inviting Napoleon III to visit the quays. In 1891, their requests to leave the boxes at night was approved. [4] : 16–19, 28 In 1930 the dimensions of the "boxes" were fixed.
During the 1970s, the bouquinistes felt threatened by the construction of the Voie Express Rive Gauche on the bank of the Seine. By then, Parisians' interest for literature decreased (as TV and radio increased in demand), leading to a decline in the quality of the antiques distributed by the bouquinistes. [5] French President François Mitterrand was a regular customer of Paris' bouquinistes. [6]
Installed along more than three kilometers of the Seine and declared a UNESCO World Heritage site, the 240 bouquinistes make use of 900 "green boxes" to house some 300,000 old books and a very great number of journals, stamps and trading cards.[ citation needed ]
The second-hand booksellers of Paris have inspired booksellers in other cities such as Ottawa, Beijing and Tokyo.
Part of the plan to ensure security for public viewing space around the Seine during the 2024 Summer Olympics opening ceremony was to remove the bouquinistes from the banks of Seine. The booksellers strongly campaigned against their boxes being moved, even if they had to be closed, with President Emmanuel Macron eventually ruling that they should not be moved and requesting a different security plan. Macron said that the bouquinistes are part of the city's "living heritage". [7]
Article 9 of the by-law of October 1993, signed by Jacques Chirac:[ citation needed ]
The boxes used by book stores will be of a type approved by the Administration with an external bodywork determined by the dimensions below, for a maximum length of 8.6 metres:
The Seine is a 777-kilometre-long (483 mi) river in northern France. Its drainage basin is in the Paris Basin covering most of northern France. It rises at Source-Seine, 30 kilometres (19 mi) northwest of Dijon in northeastern France in the Langres plateau, flowing through Paris and into the English Channel at Le Havre. It is navigable by ocean-going vessels as far as Rouen, 120 kilometres (75 mi) from the sea. Over 60 percent of its length, as far as Burgundy, is negotiable by large barges and most tour boats, and nearly its whole length is available for recreational boating; excursion boats offer sightseeing tours of the river banks in the capital city, Paris.
The Pont Neuf is the oldest standing bridge across the river Seine in Paris, France. It stands by the western (downstream) point of the Île de la Cité, the island in the middle of the river that was, between 250 and 225 BCE, the birthplace of Paris, then known as Lutetia and, during the medieval period, the heart of the city.
The Île de la Cité, 22.5 hectares in size, is one of two natural islands in the Seine, in central Paris. In the 4th century, it was the site of the fortress of the area governor for the Roman Empire. In 508, Clovis I, the first King of the Franks, established his palace on the island. In the 12th century, it became an important religious centre, the home of Notre-Dame cathedral, and the royal chapel of Sainte-Chapelle, as well as the city hospital, the Hôtel-Dieu. It is also the site of the city's oldest surviving bridge, the Pont Neuf.
Pont Neuf is a station on Line 7 of the Paris Métro. Located in the heart of old Paris, it is connected to the Île de la Cité by the nearby Pont Neuf after which it is named. It opened in 1926 with the line's extension from Palais Royal–Musée du Louvre to Pont Marie.
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Bateaux Mouches are open, long, and often glass-covered excursion boats that provide visitors to Paris with a view of the center of the city from along the river Seine. They also operate on Parisian canals such as Canal Saint-Martin, which is partially subterranean.
Bookselling is the commercial trading of books which is the retail and distribution end of the publishing process.
The Musée du Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac, located in Paris, France, is a museum designed by French architect Jean Nouvel to feature the indigenous art and cultures of Africa, Asia, Oceania, and the Americas. The museum collection comprises more than a million objects, of which 3,500 are on display at any given time, in both permanent and temporary thematic exhibits. A selection of objects from the museum is also displayed in the Pavillon des Sessions of the Louvre.
The Pont de la Tournelle, is an arch bridge spanning the river Seine in Paris.
The Pont Notre-Dame is a bridge that crosses the Seine in Paris, France linking the quai de Gesvres on the Rive Droite with the quai de la Corse on the Île de la Cité. The bridge is noted for being the "most ancient" in Paris, in the sense that, while the oldest bridge in Paris that is in its original state is undoubtedly the Pont Neuf, a bridge in some form has existed at the site of the Pont Notre-Dame since antiquity; nonetheless, it has been destroyed and reconstructed numerous times, a fact referred to in the Latin inscription on it to honor its Italian architect, Fra Giovanni Giocondo. The bridge once was lined with approximately sixty houses, the weight of which caused a collapse in 1499.
The Quai André Citroën is a road and quay along the rive gauche of the Seine, in the 15th arrondissement of Paris.
The Place Dauphine is a public square located near the western end of the Île de la Cité in the first arrondissement of Paris. It was initiated by Henry IV in 1607, the second of his projects for public squares in Paris, the first being the Place Royale. He named it for his son, the Dauphin of France and future Louis XIII, who had been born in 1601. From the "square", actually triangular in shape, one can access the middle of the Pont Neuf, a bridge which connects the left and right banks of the Seine by passing over the Île de la Cité. A street called, since 1948, Rue Henri-Robert, forty metres long, connects the Place Dauphine and the bridge. Where they meet, there are two other named places, the Place du Pont-Neuf and the Square du Vert-Galant.
Nicolas-Jean-Baptiste Raguenet was a French painter born in Gentilly.
The Bassin de la Villette is the largest artificial lake in Paris. It was filled with water on 2 December 1808. Located in the 19th arrondissement of the capital, it links the Canal de l'Ourcq to the Canal Saint-Martin, and it represents one of the elements of the Réseau des Canaux Parisiens, a public-works authority operated by the city. The other components of the network are the Canal de l'Ourcq, the Canal Saint-Denis, the Canal Saint-Martin, and the Bassin de l'Arsenal. Together, these canals and basins extend roughly 130 kilometres (81 mi).
The Quai des Tuileries is a quay on the right bank of the River Seine in Paris, France, along the stretch close to where the Palais du Louvre and the Quai François Mitterrand is situated, in the 1st arrondissement.
The Quai Voltaire is a street and quay located in the 7th arrondissement of Paris. 308 meters long, it lies between the Quai Malaquais and the Quai Anatole-France. The Quai Voltaire begins at the Rue des Saints-Pères and ends at the Rue de Bac and the Pont Royal.
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The Rue du Pont-Neuf is a street in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, France, shared between Les Halles to the north and Quartier Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois to the south. It was pierced in the second half of the 19th century. It bears this name because it leads to the Pont Neuf.
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