A lady in a bookstore in Rouen.
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JP PARIENTE / SIPA
A little poetry in the administrative paperwork.
Bookstores have joined the list of so-called essential shops and may remain open in the event of confinement on weekends, according to a decree published this Friday in the Official Journal.
Bookstores will be able to open Saturdays and Sundays between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m., specifies this decree, while the cities of Nice and Dunkirk are preparing to live their first weekends confined.
Record, VHS and DVD stores will also be able to open.
Uproar among booksellers in the fall
During the lockdown in November, bookstores were authorized to sell on their doorstep books reserved by customers "click and collect".
But they could not receive the public, because not considered essential.
A measure that had been unanimously denounced by bookstores, writers and publishers.
This decree comes in a context of resumption of the epidemic linked to Covid-19 and as the government is considering possible new restrictions in twenty departments covering Paris, Lyon and Marseille, where cases of coronavirus threaten to flare up.
The Minister of Culture Roselyne Bachelot "welcomed" the government's decision.
“Bookstores are essential businesses.
There was never any doubt.
During the second confinement, the possibility of click-and-go and the free shipping costs of books offered to booksellers made it possible to maintain their activity, ”she tweeted.
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