Bringing Bookshops Back to the Latin Quarter

Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe argues that local stores like bookshops are what make his city's economy great, and that a slight intervention in the market should not be considered inappropriate.

"Concerned by a sharp decline in the number of bookshops in what Delanoë called "part of Paris's intellectual soul", the Paris authorities have facilitated their birth.

As part of a determinedly interventionist urban strategy, the city hall has commissioned town planners to scout for premises in the fifth arrondissement that would make suitable bookshops or small publishing houses and cultural venues. The aim: to reverse a worrying trend which from 2000 to 2008 saw the number of cherished librairies drop by 231 to 137."