CUISERY
FRANCE
‘An avid reader will lose his heart here. The whole village is crazy about books.’
Jean Perdu
In her bestselling novel The Little Paris Bookshop, Nina George tells the story of Jean Perdu who runs a bookshop/bibliotherapy service from a refurbished barge, and heads off on a journey to Provence. At one point he mentions why he likes Cuisery – which lies on the canalised River Seille, one of France’s most popular crusing rivers – so much:
‘Oh, Cuisery! An avid reader will lose his heart here. The whole village is crazy about books – or crazy full stop – but that’s not unusual. Virtually every shop is a bookshop, a printer’s, a bookbinder’s, a publisher’s, and many of the houses are artists’ workshops. The place is buzzing with creativity and imagination.’
The Village du Livre de Cuisery was set up in 1999 as the country’s fourth book town, in a bid to counter its declining economy and loss of local shops over the previous decade. At the time there was only one bookshop in the town – there are now fifteen booksellers and book-related professionals. Bookshops were set up in empty premises mostly along the town’s main street, Grand Rue, in the medieval area – La Découverte in a former shoe shop, Regards in an old furniture store, L’Espace Gutenberg in a grocery, and Le Livre à Venire in a convenience store. The butcher’s was turned into an artist’s studio.
Initially there was a full-time worker employed by the Cuisery bookseller’s association to manage events, but now they are entirely run by a small army of dedicated volunteers.
Every first Sunday of the month there is a book market which welcomes outside booksellers from around Burgundy, Rhône-Alpes, and Franche-Comté. Other events are organised throughout the year, usually with numerous concerts running simultaneously, including a comic book market in September and poetry readings in springtime. Printing demonstrations are also available at Espace Gutenberg (Grand Rue) on a copy of the original Gutenberg press (Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays from June to September, and each Saturday from October to May). Bibles and Christian literature are also available in its bookshop. Plans are also in place for a new bookbindery.
The impressively bookish gateway into Cuisery.
Les Chats Noirs bookshop, which specialises in books on social and libertarian movements.
Books are for sale just about everywhere in Cuisery.
Other bookshops specialise in comic books (Charabias, Grand Rue), art (Cuisery Arts, Grand Rue), social and libertarian movements (Les Chats Noirs, Rue du Pavé), speleology and prehistory (La Découverte, Grand Rue), and polar history (Vae Victis, Grand Rue). As Jean Perdu says: “You can find everything here.”
The Booksellers’ Association is also a small scale publisher. The winners of its annual short story competition are collected in a special booklet, and a special literary heritage tour of the department looks at men and women of letters associated with Cuisery and the surrounding area.
Above and Below: A few of around fifteen bookstores dotted around Cuisery.
A visitor browses a book stall with Librairie Hérode – publishers of Editions Hérode – pictured in the background.