Bécherel became the first commune in France to define itself as a “Book Village’ in 1989. Six other French villages have chosen to define themselves this way.
The Paris Book Festival, which will be held this weekend at the Grand Palais, offers the opportunity to explore these little-known towns. The concept of dedicating a town to the book trade attracted France thirty years later. In 2012, a ‘Federation of Towns, Cities and Villages of Books in France’ was even formed. For several years, it served as a link between these villages, spread across different regions of France. They met once a year in Paris, during the Antique Book Fair, but the federation no longer exists today, which Anne Feriau, president of the Esquelbecq, Book Village association, regrets. It would be interesting to restart the process and see if the municipalities would like to reform a common core, she says. For more information, visit the Book Village website.