For a bookstore dedicated 100% to Paris, we couldn't dream of a more beautiful location: on the quays, opposite the Ile Saint-Louis and… in the Marais! The name of the bookstore itself is well chosen: Le Piéton de Paris, in reference to the book by Léon-Paul Fargue (published in 1932) which is an ode to the city of lights.
Inaugurated two years ago, this bookstore for lovers of the capital has, as a bonus, the cozy charm of a Parisian two-room apartment with its 35 square meters where you can find everything – literature, architectural collections, photo books, tapes drawn, works on fine arts - provided that they are works linked to the City of Lights. The selection is exhaustive and the advice of bookseller Frédérique Aubier is sound.
When asked for the names of typically Parisian authors, the answer comes: Raymond Queneau, Patrick Modiano, Daniel Pennac, Victor Hugo, Honoré de Balzac. “The list is not fixed because Paris itself is in flux,” adds the energetic bookseller and pulling from the shelves a work devoted to Fréhel, the influential singer of the interwar period with a tragic destiny (she died alone in a hotel in Pigalle in 1951).
Since the inauguration of the bookstore, Frédérique Aubier has organized author signings on a weekly basis. Covid-19 has unfortunately interrupted this formidable dynamic. And interrupted, the flow of customers in love with Paris who came from far away (from the suburbs, from the provinces, from New York, from Seoul, etc.) to get their supplies from the good source of Le Piéton de Paris.
To le Marais Mood, it is an opportunity to remember that support for booksellers represents more than ever an act of resistance in the face of unbridled competition from Amazon (and its underpaid couriers) which threatens the very existence of booksellers. And thus, the soul of the capital.
Bookstore Le Pedestrian de Paris
58, rue de l’Hotel de Ville, 75004 Paris
From Tuesday to Saturday
11AM - 18PM
Tel: +01 53 69 09 16
Text: Katia Barillot
25.02.21
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