Bouquinistes or book stalls along the River Seine in Paris near Notre Dame Cathedral

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Man at a book stall along the river Seine in Paris France The used-book sellers (bouquinistes) you see along the Seine around Notre-Dame are a Parisian fixture. They've been here since the mid-1500s, when shops and stalls lined most of the bridges in Paris. In 1557, these merchants were labeled as thieves for selling forbidden Protestant pamphlets during the Wars of Religion (Parisians were staunchly Catholic). The term bouquinistes (boo-keen-eest) probably comes from the Dutch word boeckin, meaning "small book." First using wheelbarrows to transport and sell their goods, these hardy entrepreneurs eventually fastened trays to the parapets of the bridges with thin leather straps. After the Revolution, business boomed when entire libraries were liberated from nobles or clergymen and wound up for sale cheap on the banks of the Seine. In 1891, bouquinistes received permission to permanently attach their boxes to the quaysides. Today, the waiting list to become one of Paris' 250 bouquinistes is eight years.

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Size: 5164px × 3422px
Location: Port de Montebello, Paris, France
Photo credit: © David Jones / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: bank, book, bouquinistes, dame, france, magazine, magnet, man, merchant, notre, paris, poster, print, river, seine, souvenir, stall, travel, vintage