With their famous green "boxes" (the same color as the one defined around 1900 for the Wallace fountains and the Morris columns), these atypical booksellers are inseparable from the Quais de Seine where they work all year long. A look back at this French intangible cultural heritage classified since 2019.
Bouquinistes take their name from the word "bouquin" (book in a familiar form), which itself comes from the Flemish word "boeckin" meaning book of little value. These sellers of old books have, since 1891, officially the right to leave their goods on the place of sale which is granted to them.
Before the present green boxes, which can be closed at night, books were sold in small wooden boxes that were easy to transport.
Before them, in the 16th century, it was peddlers who sold books in a basket (worn on the collar or slung over the shoulder) along the quays and on the Pont neuf.
Political and religious pamphlets or scandalous magazines were widely distributed in the heart of Paris until 1649: under pressure from booksellers, a regulation forbade the display of these polemical books in these very busy areas.
Paris, the only city in the world where a river flows
between two rows of books
Nowadays, these bookstores are a bit disdained by the public, but they still contribute to the beautiful literary reputation of the French capital.
This is what has earned this tradition a place on UNESCO's World Heritage List since 1991.
So don't hesitate to discover these more than 200 bookshops offering old works (generally second-hand), comics, rarities of French literature, old newspaper editions or even posters and postcards.
Where to find them?
For the right bank, from the point Marie to the quay du Louvre. For the left bank, from the quay de la Tournelle to the quay Voltaire.
From dawn to dusk, all year long, the bookshops are waiting for you.
Aphélie from Comme des Français
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