Tim Hotel - Hotel near The booksellers on the Seine

Where can you find the biggest concentration of outdoor bookshops ? In Paris! Along the Seine book lovers and collectors regularly meet to find rare books or specific editions. Every one is looking for a ‘treasure’ or just to a have a look at old papers and documents.

The origins of the « Bouquinistes » or second-hand booksellers, dates from the period of the building of the « Pont-Neuf » which was completed in 1607. It is on this famous bridge that peddlers chose to sell written papers (sometimes rather subversive). These strolling merchants started to settle and installed storage boxes, which resembled the dark green ones we can see today.

Nowadays, the « bouquinistes » are no longer the fringe travelling booksellers they used to be, criticizing everything and every one about politics, king, police and clergy. The so called «’spirit sellers’ now belong to the Parisian scenery, as can be seen on postcards.

Good to know:
The name ‘bouquiniste” comes from a word of Flemish origin ‘boeckjîn ‘ which means ‘small book’. These coveted spaces consist of four boxes measuring 2 metres. They strech over more than 3 kilometers. The work conditions are not often too pleasant for these booksellers as the administrative rules oblige them to be present four days a week whatever the meteorological conditions. The population of ‘bouquinistes’ represents some 240 persons today.

Timhotel’s tips and suggestions :
Do not miss the walk on the Pont-Neuf (meaning ‘new bridge’), the first stone bridge across the Seine. In the past, it was a fashionable place to be seen by Paris society. Smart gentlemen met there to fight duels! In 1985, the American artist Christo ‘packed’ it and it became a contemporary work of art for a period of two weeks.

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