Bouquinistes, the famous Parisian booksellers who line the banks of the Seine River, are increasingly forced to peddle mass-produced, touristy merchandise to make ends meet, laments NPR.
From the piece...
There are about 250 bouquinistes along the Seine. Each has four boxes loaned to them for free by the city of Paris. In exchange, bouquinistes are allowed to fill only one box with tourist mementos. Paris city hall recently launched a competition to attract new bouquinistes to stalls that had lain empty. About 300 candidates applied for 30 slots.
Lyne Cohen-Solal, deputy mayor in charge of commerce, says it's important to find the right candidates to "dispense the culture."
"I think for Paris, it's ... very important to have real people, real professional people as bouquinistes, and not ... people coming there just to make money," Cohen-Solal says. "It's important to have cultural commerce."
Many bouquinistes are former professors or journalists and often specialize in a certain genre. Alain Huche sells cookbooks and old menus. He pulls out a restaurant menu from a dinner held in 1871 during the Prussian siege of Paris when hundreds of people starved to death.
"They ate the zoo animals, including the last elephant," Huche explains. "They also ate rats and cats."
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