The River of Books

People have sold books on the streets of Paris for over 450 years. After the Pont Neuf, then a “new bridge,” as its name implies, was finished in 1607, the city had a new, central traffic point. Not only would it remain the widest bridge across the Seine for a long time, it was also the most convenient. It had proper pavement and, instead of houses along its edges, there were bastions, which made it easy to step aside and let horses and carriages pass.

Naturally, traffic of all sorts flocked to the bridge, and, with it, so did the booksellers. But a bridge is only as good as the number of people it allows to cross, so when vendors of all kinds started blocking the flow of traffic, the city of Paris made numerous efforts to drive them away. Several decrees were issued in the 17th and 18th centuries. By the halfway point of the latter, the booksellers finally had to find a new home. They chose the next best spot: right along the Seine.

This came with its own problems, but, for one, it split the crowd of salesfolk in two: some set up on the north side of the river, the others on the south. For another, it was now easier to formalize their activities. The “bouquinistes,” as they are today officially known, received official slots along the river in 1859. Each bookseller could now rent a stretch of 10 meters along the river for annual costs of about 50 francs. They were allowed to install four boxes each to store and sell their books out of, the color and design of which was later also standardized.

Suddenly, what was once a sore point in the city’s image became one of its most endearing features. In the years that followed, the model quickly thrived and expanded. And while some politicians threatened the bouquinistes with removal throughout the years, time has only made them more integral to Paris.

Today, over 200 bouquinistes protect, manage, and trade over 300,000 books spread across 900 iconic green boxes, covering a stretch of over three kilometers along the Seine. The river banks themselves were already declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1991, and, in recent years, the city has been making efforts to get the booksellers recognized in their own right as well.

Initially, you could barely stroll across the Pont Neuf. Today, you can wander over that bridge, 11 others, as well as six kilometers of beautiful quays north and south of the river—all while perusing old books, contemporary magazines, as well as postcards, newspapers, stamps, and the occasional souvenir. The Seine went from “the river folks struggle to cross” to, according to the BBC, “the only river in the world that runs between two bookshelves.”

The people. The river. The books and the knowledge that’s in them. Everything must keep flowing. If we want life to move, so need we. For nearly half a millennium, that’s what the bouquinistes have been doing. If they keep it up, they’ll only become a larger part of the percolating powers that make up Paris.