Through gilets jaunes, strikes and Covid, Paris's 400-year-old book stalls fight to survive

With passing trade hit hard by the pandemic, the booksellers on the banks of the Seine are struggling

Usually, Sundays are good days for the bouquinistes. Legions of strollers – tourists, out-of-towners, Parisians – throng the banks of the Seine, and the open-air booksellers whose green boxes have lined the quays for 400-odd years do good business.

One recent Sunday, though, Jérôme Callais made €32. And there was a day that week when he made €4: a single paperback, he can’t even recall which. It has not, Callais said, sheltering from driving rain on an all but deserted Quai de Conti, been easy.

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from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2KMd5ON

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