Au Bleuet, the largest independent bookstore in France in a rural area
Detective novel, youth, ecology or personal development: Le Bleuet has 80,000 book references.
© Sébastien Jédor / RFI
Text by: Sébastien Jédor Follow
5 mins
First closed at the start of the coronavirus pandemic and then considered "
essential
", independent bookstores are celebrating this Saturday, April 24, in France.
The country can be proud of having known how to preserve a network of booksellers outside the large cultural supermarkets… and this, thanks to the Lang law on the single book price, which we are celebrating 40 years this year.
Example of this cultural exception in Banon, in the Alpes de Haute-Provence, in the south-east of France, where one of the most gigantic independent bookstores in France, Le Bleuet, is located.
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From our special correspondent in Banon,
The village of Banon - just under 1,000 inhabitants at the foot of the Lure mountain - has two specialties.
The first is gourmet: a fragrant goat cheese molded with a ladle and coated in a chestnut leaf.
The second relates to the French cultural exception: Le Bleuet, the largest independent bookstore in France in rural areas, open 365 days a year.
Over 800 square meters, on four levels, the shelves contain 100,000 books, representing 80,000 references ...
Marc Gaucherand and his wife Isabelle took over this institution, founded in 1990, five years ago. For the owner-manager, success is based on two pillars: “
On the one hand, we have a large collection of literature, comics and human sciences. , etc.
, he emphasizes.
In terms of children's literature, for example, we have entire series, entire collections available.
On the other hand, we have a great diversity in the novelties: diversity of titles, publishing houses, authors… We want the greatest variety of choices possible,
”adds the former professor, originally from Lyon.
Marc Gaucherand, owner-manager of Bleuet, with his daughter Sabine, in charge of the cultural space of the bookstore.
© Sébastien Jédor / RFI
Diversity versus uniformity
At Bleuet, the key word is therefore diversity rather than uniformity. A beautiful book on Astor Piazzolla next
to Plato's Republic
. Didier Raoult's bestseller on the Covid-19 rubs shoulders with collections of poetry by
Louise Glück, Nobel Prize for Literature
. The complete Asterix will delight the youngest while their parents will leaf through the anthology
The most beautiful girls in erotic comics
.
The statistics speak for themselves.
What specialists call the
bookstore's “
recruitment area
” is particularly large: customers travel up to 250 kilometers to come to Bleuet!
"
I even saw a reader disembark from Brittany for a meeting that we organized with the author Marie-Hélène Lafon,
smiles Marc Gaucherand,
who admits that" it is a little unreasonable "
" ...
"
You can find almost everything
"
Claude came from the neighboring village of Saint-Étienne-les-Orgues, with his shopping list.
“
I was looking for this book,
Autobiography of an octopus,
an anticipatory novel by Vinciane Desprest and then authors from the African continent, such as Fatou Diome,
details this regular, who affirms, delighted:
here, there is practically everything ... a few very rare exceptions!
"
All customers praise the in-depth knowledge of booksellers, each in their field.
Lisa, Emma, Sophie or Stéphane - some of the employees - have slipped sweet words on the covers of their favorite books.
Favorites that are better than all Amazon algorithms.
Bankruptcy and rebirth
However, the Cornflower almost disappeared ... because of Amazon ... indirectly! The founder of the bookstore dreamed –justly- of making it a competitor of the online sales site. He had therefore invested in a huge warehouse at the entrance to the village. Investment that will prove to be a financial pit. Bankruptcy and liquidated in 2016, the company has since recovered with its new buyers.
Despite the confinements weighing on turnover, the bookstore is even continuing its development.
With the support of the South region and the European Union, Le Bleuet will soon open an exhibition space dedicated to the visual arts.
On the walls of the room, on the garden level, the paneling has just been installed.
Marc Nucera's sculptures will soon arrive by the winding road that leads to Banon.
Cornflower can flourish again.
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