A familiar sight in Paris as you walk along the promenade beside the River Seine are the bouquainistes – the freelance vendors who sell second hand books and ancient periodicals from boxes chained to the parapet walls.
There are some 250 bouquainistes who rent the parapet space on which to batten their “boites.” These book boxes have to conform to regulations introduced in 1891, when the bouquainistes were allowed to attach their boxes permanently to the quay walls.
For 450 years until then, there had been booksellers on the bridges and the banks of the Seine operating from barrows and wheeling their books home with them at night.
The construction of a new, open-plan bridge, the Pont Neuf, in 1606, helped the spread of book vendors on both sides of the river.
The French revolution resulted in a boom for the bouquainistes at the end of the 18th century, as the libraries of the nobility were broken up and books became available for selling to ordinary citizens.
Who first decided to fasten his tray of books to the parapet walls is lost to history. So, too, is who invented the practical design of the boxes that enables them with the opening of the lid and the dropping of the front, to become a bookstall in miniature.
The wooden boxes are covered with metal sheets to keep them waterproof. They are two metres long, just shy of a metre deep, and about 35cms high. They are secured to the wall by wooden battens and spikes, although leather strips were used in the past.
Some boxes have arched lids while others are flat. The lids open up to form the roof of the box, supported by props. A flap at the front of the box drops down over the face of the parapet wall and acts as a display shelf.
The books stored inside are wedged into pigeonholes while excess stock is laid out on top of the wall in the space next to the box.
The boxes are painted green and are usually grouped in fours, the maximum number permitted per bouquainistes. Regulations stipulate that there must be enough space between groups of boxes to allow passersby to see the river.
The rent is low, enabling bouquainistes to sell their books at prices lower than in conventional second hand bookshops. However, since most bouquainistes own the business themselves, prices sometimes reflect the seller’s mood rather than an item’s value. If it’s been a good day, you might be able to get a real bargain.
By the terms of their lease, these riverside vendors are supposed to open at least four days a week, in fair weather and foul. In winter, though, they only open for a token few hours. In warm weather, they open up around 11am and close only when it gets dark.
Many vendors specialise in a certain type of book or subject matter and have their regular customers. Serious book collectors are price conscious and know, often by checking the Internet, what is the price to be paid for a collectible item.
Although most of the books are in French, it is possible to find valuable first editions or out of print books in English.
There is a concentration of bouquainistes on the left bank, around the Quai de Montebello, and on the right bank where the Pont Neuf crosses the Seine. The left bank seems to have more specialists, such as the vendor who sells only cookery books, and another dealing in vintage music books, like my book, The Big Beat Scene first published in 1961.
Officially, the boxes selling souvenirs are supposed to be limited to one in every three, but many bouquainistes concentrate solely on mementos like mini-Eiffel towers. Others sell reproduction photos of iconic stars like James Dean, or posters adverting 1970s Led Zeppelin concerts.
The presence of the bouquainistes, whatever they have to offer, adds interest to a casual stroll along the right and left banks of the Seine; they are typically Parisian, and wonderfully international.
Royston Ellis, author of over 60 biographies, novels and travel guides, now lives in Sri Lanka having left England, where he began as a beat poet, in 1961, age 20, for a life of travel. Paris is one of his favourite European destinations. His latest book, The Big Beat Scene, has just been published by Music Mentor Books (http://musicmentor0.tripod.com/book_big_beat_scene.html), in a new edition for the first time in 50 years with a foreword and afterword about his association with The Beatles. http://roystonellis.com
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