Hélène Fischbach, director of the Quais du Polar, reflects on how the reader and the genre have evolved. Her impossible dream is to bring John Le Carré to Lyon for the first time.

The festival has become the largest gathering of crime novel authors, readers and experts in Europe. The polar (as the genre is known in France) sold around 23 million copies in 2023, according to a report by the French Publishers' Association (FPI) The festival is a success story in the world of cultural management.