Edouard Cortes “Bouquinistes, Notre Dame”
Source: Bouquinistes, Notre Dame – here is another Paris street scene by the 20th century French artist Edouard Leon Cortes (1882-1969) that recently found a new home.
Opposite Notre Dame, along the Quai (waterfront) de Montebello, are the bookseller’s stalls. Since the 1500s, these stalls have lined most of the bridges in Paris. The word Bouquinistes most likely comes from the Dutch word boeckin, which means small book. Initially, the booksellers used a wheelbarrow to carry and sell their goods, strapping trays to the parapets of the bridges. After the Revolution, business was thriving as whole libraries were seized from Noblemen, as well as Clergymen, and then sold. In 1891, the booksellers affixed permanent boxes to the walls of the quai which were locked shut with metal bars and padlocks to keep everything safe.
Today, the booksellers must be open at least four days a week and you can find all sorts of things there: old prints and engravings, old issues of Paris Match (a magazine, founded in 1949, about celebrities and European royal families), maps, books, comic books, and other odds and ends. While the goods on display are typically for tourists, the serious collector should not overlook them. Many a gem can be found there since the city legislates that there can be only one box of souvenirs to every three boxes of books.