Paris’s River Seine booksellers are fighting to keep their places amid 2024 Olympic plans. The bouquinistes of River Seine are hundreds of years old, and they claim their rights now as the 2024 Olympic Games plans begin in Paris.
Paris decided nearly two years ago that the opening ceremony would occur on the Seine instead of in a stadium or another enclosed venue. Hosting athletes on more than 160 boats breaks with tradition—creating a security nightmare for the city’s law enforcement.
While Paris officials want to dismantle and temporarily relocate the stands ahead of the ceremony, the government will cover the cost of the moves and damage done to many of the fragile structures.
The sellers themselves, however, say that they were not consulted on the decision, which they argue could drastically alter the literary landscape along the river.
The booksellers see their work as the continuation of a rich cultural tradition—and they see the government’s demand as a threat to their unique ideals and lifestyle.
“Are they even going to offer us the same spots again after the games?” says bookseller Guillaume Castro to CNN’s Oliver Briscoe. Another merchant, Jean-François Medioni, voiced similar concerns: “I’m afraid that we get them back either in a year, or maybe never, or with someone else’s things in them.”
It’s not a job; it’s a philosophy of life
“It’s not a job, it’s a philosophy of life,” Jérôme Callais, the head of the Cultural Association of the Bouquinistes, told the Guardian’s Jon Henley during the pandemic in 2020.
Anti-establishment sentiment runs in the blood of these booksellers. In 1649, the city banned the small book stands from the Pont Neuf, now the oldest bridge in Paris—and the beating heart of the city at the time—due to pressure from bookstores that wanted the business. At various times, the stalls sold anti-monarchist literature; much later, the sellers helped to hide and distribute resistance materials during the Nazi occupation.
Paris officials claim they are open to further discussion. In a statement to CNN, the city government says, “We would like to hold a meeting, alongside the Police Prefecture, at the start of term (after the summer recess) to follow up on this decision.”
But with less than a year to go before the Olympics begin in France, the fight over the bookstands will likely only intensify.
“The stage is set for a battle royale between the forces of literature and sport, tradition and modernity, the individual and the state,” as the London Times puts it. “The bouquinistes are manning the barricades, and the revolution has only just begun.”
