The first LGBT bookstore in France, "Les Mots à la bouche", forced to move on March 31, 2020, cannot be resolved to leave its historic district of Le Marais, in Paris, which is experiencing an explosion in rental prices.
The shop on rue Sainte-Croix de la Bretonnerie, recognizable by its blue window, announced that the lease would not be renewed after more than 36 years in the walls. The owner "wants to align with the prices in the neighborhood, which amounts to multiplying the rent by three or four", explains AFP Nicolas Wanstok, bookseller for thirteen years.
gentrification
Founded in the early 1980s by Jean-Pierre Meyer-Guiton, activist of the Homosexual Liberation Group (GLH), "Les Mots à la bouche" was one of the founders of "Marais Gay", helping to bring out the identity of this Parisian district.
But for the past ten years, as in other sectors of the capital, the district has been transformed under the effect of gentrification with the establishment of luxury brands and an explosion in rents, pushing historic businesses to move.
A historic library
After the closure in 2008 of the Blue Book bookstore, rue Quincampoix, “Les Mots à la Bouche” is one of the last LGBT bookstores in France, with the “Vigna” in Nice or “Violette and Co” in Paris, which offer feminist and LGBT works.
"Words to Mouth" is a historic bookstore, confirms to AFP Christophe Girard, Deputy Mayor of Paris for culture, "we are all very attached to it and our objective is that it be saved". "We continue to look for options, while they settle their exit conditions with the owner," he adds.
The temptation of elsewhere
Through entities such as the GIE Paris Commerce or the Semaest, the town hall of the 4th arrondissement offered some premises with the historic brand, but these "tracks did not correspond" because of their location, underlines Nicolas Wanstok.
Weakened by the drop in sales, in a district that is gradually losing its community dimension, the "Words to Mouth" team is, he says, torn between the desire to "defend this model" and that of set up elsewhere.
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